Dual Wielding
by Thrythlind
Summary: In the aftermath of the Fourth Grail War, a Servant was left behind in the world of mortal men. Ten years later, when the Fifth Grail War begins this has a profound impact on what is to come for Shirou Emiya
1. Chapter 1

The fire raged all around the woman as black mud clung to her, searing even the bright shining mail that she wore into a darkness. The smell and taste of it swarmed over her forcing her to choke and cough trying to force it out of her mouth and lungs. She was only barely conscious of the devastation raging about her as her mind swam and tears of rage and fresh betrayal stung her eyes and trailed down her cheeks. She forced herself to stand up momentarily and fell back to her knees as the mud impossibly flowed up her body.

Then she screamed out into the night sky.

* * *

Many years later Taiga Fujimura smiled as she sat at the table and looked at all the wonderful things that Sakura had cooked for breakfast. The girl had gone to Shirou's room to wake him up for the morning meal leaving Taiga to sit and wait for them.

Slyly she looked around and then reached out to fill her bowl with rice. Normally, she wouldn't do something nearly so stupid, but with certain members of the household still out on their business trip, it seemed safe.

"Ahhh, Sakura-chan's cooking is so wonderful," Fuji-nee commented in a carefree manner as she sampled some pickles and omelet. "They won't mind if I start without them."

The sliding door behind her slid open and she turned around with a smile on her face to wave at the newcomer and then turn back to her food. She had barely looked back at the bowl of rice before she'd realized something and slowly twisted her neck around to confirm that she had, indeed, caught a glimpse of hell.

* * *

"Senpai," a soft, feminine voice called out. "Shirou-Senpai. You need to wake up."

The young man named felt his eyes start to open and he took in the purple-haired appearance of his friend's younger sister. He smiled.

"Ahh, Sakura-chan," he said with a sigh of recognition. "I guess I fell asleep again while repairing this and overslept." He gestured toward the machine behind him.

"That's all right," Sakura repeated. "I'd actually like it if you would oversleep more often so that I can take care of you."

"Yeah, but I'm sure Fuji-Nee will chew me out over..." Shirou paused and his eyes widened. "Oh no!"

He darted around Sakura and ran for the door to the storehouse.

"Senpai?" Sakura asked.

"She's coming back today!" he called over his shoulder.

"She..." Sakura started to say looking a little confused before her own eyes widened and she brought a hand to her mouth in surprise. "Oh!"

Shirou was certain he was already too late as he arrived at the house and heard the authoritative demands of one of the other women in his life. Sure enough, as he turned a corner, he found a terrified Fujimura Taiga running up and down the dojo with a towel in her hand. She was dressed in her normal green and orange outfit.

"You will not come here and be a layabout beggar to this household!" shouted the other woman in the room.

This woman was much smaller than Taiga, with pale almost bleached skin and faded blonde hair. Her golden eyes stared out of a bitter and angry glare as she barked reproach and derision at Fujimura-sensei. "Are you or are you not a teacher and responsible for setting an example for your students?!"

"Yes, Big Sister," Fujimura-Sensei declared. "I'm sorry Big Sister."

"And I come in to find you sitting down to eat breakfast before your host is even in the room," the blonde woman snapped. "Are you a sensei or a yakuza brat?!"

"A sensei, Big Sister!" Fuji-Nee declared.

"Did you even make sure that Shirou went to bed at an appropriate time last night?" the blonde snapped savagely.

"Of course I did, Big Sister," Fuji-Nee declared as she ran up the dojo again, thinking that she was going to be sweaty when she got to work.

"Then why is he dressed in his work-overalls, standing in the entryway and looking like he slept in the storehouse?" at this point the small, angry woman whirled to glare at Shirou. "Again!"

The confused Taiga paused and turned to look where Shirou was standing with a sheepish expression. "Shirou-kun, you didn't."

"Uh, welcome home, Ria," Shirou said apologetically.

Behind Shirou, Sakura walked into the scene and smiled as she waved at the blonde woman and Fujimura-sensei.

"Good morning, Penn-san," Sakura said cheerfully.

"Sakura-chan," Ria commented in a somewhat more reasonable tone of growl. "My apologies, but if you could wait for us at the breakfast table?"

"Of course, Ria," Sakura responded in a kindly manner as she walked on past the scene and the blonde woman turned back to look at Shirou and Fujimura.

"Now, Shirou, clean yourself up," she snapped. "Your work ethic is admirable, but you fail in your duty if you fail to care for yourself."

Shirou had heard that many times before and he bowed swiftly, working to keep the smile off his face. She did not respond to such expressions either lightly or well save from Sakura and other acquaintances from school. Even then she mostly preferred to avoid such people when they were at the house.

Ria had been an acquaintance of Shirou's father in someway, though he had never seen them so much as speak to each other in the years his father was alive. Not directly, at least. For any exchange between the two to occur, there had to be a third party that they could direct their words to as part of their continual effort to ignore each other.

Shirou had once wondered if they were lovers that had had a falling out, at least that's what he'd have called it if the suspicion had come now. Suggesting it had brought a hot, angry silence sitting behind a harshly offended glare from the woman and somewhat disapproving glance from his gentler father.

"Fujimura!"

"Yes Big Sister?" Fujimura-Sensei asked hopefully.

"After classes." The hopeful look on the teacher's face got bigger. "Bring. Your. Sword."

Fujimura's face crashed into the depths of hell.

"Buh...I'm going to die!"

* * *

At the breakfast table, Fujimura-sensei sat nervously next to Ria as the small blonde woman tore into the feast at her usual pace. It had been just Fuji-nee's luck that food had been the issue at hand, the blonde woman took her food very seriously. She's was something like Shirou imagined a hungry lion would be...or maybe a rampaging dragon. In between bites, Ria was running a checklist looking for whatever inevitable thing Fujimura-sensei had forgotten.

"Did you..."

"Another gas leak today resulted in a dozen unconscious individuals being transferred to the hospital," the TV commented, drawing a narrowed look from Ria that neither Sakura nor Fujimura had quite seen before.

Shirou would have noted that as well, if he weren't equally enthralled by the news-story.

"Yes, I remembered to..." Fujimura paused as she noted the other woman's distraction. "Ria? Big Sister? Shirou what is..?"

"Senpai?" Sakura asked. "Penn-san? What is the matter."

"It reminds me of something," Ria responded slowly turning back to the table and noting Shirou's own attention with a narrowing set of eyes. "Shirou."

The young man instantly turned to look at her and recognized the forbidding look.

"You have other concerns than an _accident_," and she heavily emphasized the last word.

"Right, school," Shirou said nervously. "It just seemed a bit spooky is all."

The look on Ria's face proclaimed that she wasn't fooled at all.

* * *

"Ria" watched Shirou and Sakura walk off as she grimaced and considered matters. The pain spiked in her briefly as she clenched her fist imperceptibly. The pain was always present to some degree, but the spikes had been getting more frequent of late and there were other things. There was a stirring in her soul outside the curse that continued to try and consume her from within.

It felt like the Grail War was starting again for all that it was fifty years too early. She was tempted to declare that they were leaving the area for a time, but she had to first make sure that Shirou wasn't chosen. If that happened she wasn't sure how to approach matters. It wasn't like she could prevent the Grail from choosing anyone, even if she dragged Shirou to England.

The pain spiked again at that thought, drawing an angry growl from her throat.

The swordswoman was flesh and blood now, her proximity to what the boy carried and the Grail's curse had combined to insure that over the past ten years. She hadn't yet been a proper Counter Guardian or Heroic Spirit in the first place, so that probably had affected the situation as well. Whatever the case, while she couldn't be called human, she also wasn't as strong as she had been. Possibly she could form a contract still and recover some power without sacrificing her resistance to the curse, but she'd rather not have the need.

"Don't pick him, you accursed thing," she growled quietly.

* * *

Shirou thought about the rumors he had heard as he walked home from work. All the gas leaks sending people to the hospital. That burglary and murder committed with a long blade.

There was something strange going on and Ria knew what it was. She had all but outright forbidden Shirou from looking into it at breakfast this morning. He was well aware of her thoughts on his desire. His mind cast back to a particular conversation.

"Why is it impossible?" he had asked his father.

"It's hard," Kiritsugu responded.

"Why is it hard?" the boy had pressed. "You and Ria-oneesama saved me so why can't I save everyone else."

"You can only save the people you know about," his father's answer had been. "And sometimes things will happen that you can't stop."

"And sometimes you have to kill in order to save others," Ria had interjected. "That is what is not being told to you."

They were both right of course, but it wasn't something he accepted. He would save everyone. He would find a way to become that Hero of Justice.

Regardless, he shook his head as he came up to his door and started to walk inside. Almost instantly he was set on by a wild Taiga. At least it was only Taiga right now. The matter of him taking care of himself was something both women had firmly identical stances on.

"Shirou! What are you doing out so late! Students were told to go home as soon as school was out," the woman had lectured. "You're going to give your Fuji-nee and Big Sister ulcers from worrying about you."

As she spoke, she rotated one of her shoulders, and it looked like she was developing a bruise on her forehead. Or maybe a group of bruises. Her hair was a little wet as well.

"I was at my job," he protested.

"And I'll bet you did everybody else's work too," Taiga had scoffed.

"What's the harm if it helps someone?" Shirou demanded. "And where's Ria?"

"Oh, Penn-san and Fujimura-sensei were being very diligent in their exercise," Sakura explained gently. "Ria is still finishing up her bath."

"You should feel lucky that she is," Taiga added. "You getting in this late. Sakura has almost finished the cooking. She's been here so long that she was able to entirely finish preparing the meal."

As Taiga lectured the young man, Sakura walked back toward the furo to alert Ria that dinner was ready and Shirou was home. Minutes later, the black garbed blonde was standing beside Taiga and glaring at Shirou before they got ready to sit at the table.

A few loud and harrowing minutes later and they were sitting at the table while Fuijmura and Ria tagged team Shirou in describing his desire to help others.

"And then there was his elementary essay," Taiga noted. "'My Dream is to be a Hero Justice.'"

"That sounds like a good thing," Sakura commented.

"Maybe for a child," Ria protested, "but Shirou seems to consider the idea has true merit."

"What's wrong with wanting to be a hero?" Sakura asked.

"Because Heroes are hated," the blonde explained. "They're people who sacrifice their lives so that lies can be told behind their back. They're outsiders the rest of the world feels justified to drop their dirty laundry on."

"But I always thought Heroes were loved," Sakura protested.

"Love for anyone called 'hero' is always cursed," Ria declared in a tone that was much cooler than usual for her. "Hero is a curse that devours the person who would become one."

Taiga sighed but nodded along with the other woman's comments. "There are many more productive things to be, Shirou."

Sakura bent down to her meal and ate in silence as Shirou shrugged with a put upon look to his face.

* * *

The next morning, went pretty much like the first one.

"Good morning, everyone!" Fuji-nee declared as she walked into the house carrying a shopping bag in her hand triumphantly.

"You have the temerity to appear again this morning after your affront yesterday?" Ria demanded angrily, though she took the offered bag without commenting on its existence. "You should feel fortunate that Shirou is the master of this place not I or I would have banned you several times over."

"Of course, Big Sister," Fujimura said in a singsong tone.

Shirou recognized the name of the store on the bag as a high-end store dealing in toiletries and the like. Fujimura turned it over with a carefree smile that clearly irked Ria though, as usual, she wouldn't mention it. She had only ever mentioned Taiga's "tithe" once before actually. Shirou was careful not to let either woman see him roll his eyes in amusement at the display.

Still, at least the bath salts that came in made the house furo one of the most relaxing and soothing he'd ever experienced. Ria certainly seemed to enjoy them, at least more than she enjoyed anything else.

Behind them, the TV was running again. The news discussed the previous murder and pondered whether or not it was connected to an unidentified European woman that had been admitted to a hospital with a severed arm and then disappeared.

"Shirou, you have no work today," Ria said near the end of the meal. Beside her Fujimura nodded.

"And you aren't on the cleaning teams for today either," Fujimura confirmed.

"Sakura-chan," Ria addressed the purple haired girl imperiously. "You are to not walk home alone. You are to wait for Shirou to escort you directly here or to your house. Is this understood?"

"Yes, Penn-san," Sakura responded too quickly. "I will wait for Senpai to escort me home from school."

Shirou narrowed his eyes at the lot of them and sighed. "You worked this out ahead of time didn't you?"

Ria simply returned to savaging the remains of the food in front of her as Sakura started collecting dishes and Fujimura checked her watch.

"Ack! I'm going to be late!" the sensei declared before running out of the scene.

"Tch," Ria grimaced at Taiga's retreat from the scene. "That woman always leaves when there's work to be done."

* * *

Later that day, as the sun was dropping, Sakura started to walk for the gates alongside Shirou. She looked up to see her brother and a gaggle of girls approaching and tensed as she did so. Shinji's eyes immediately traced to her standing there at Shirou's side and narrowed.

"Oi, Shirou," Shinji called out. "Do you think you can do me a favor. Our dojo is a little dirty and I'm just so very busy you know."

The girls around him giggled and Shirou smiled slightly at the obvious ploy. Still, there was no harm in helping out. If he hadn't already promised to see Sakura right home, then he'd quite easily be willing to do it.

"Sorry, but I've been tasked to make sure your sister gets home safely," Shirou commented.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Shinji protested. "She'll be fine."

"Sorry, but I really need to make sure of this," Shirou said with a sigh. "Fujimura-sensei and Ria both demand that I escort her tonight."

"But if the dojo isn't cleaned tomorrow then I'll be in trouble," Shinji insisted.

"I'm sorry, but my hands are tied," Shirou said with honest regret. "But maybe you and your friends can get it done quickly."

Shinji returned the statement with an angry look that seemed to be more savage than Shirou could account for. It made him somewhat cautious and, despite his long friendship with the other boy, he began to feel it would be best to leave before anything could happen to threaten that friendship.

"We need to be going, senpai," Sakura said cautiously, half hiding behind Shirou.

"Right, see you tomorrow, Shinji," Shirou said as he left the scene to bring Sakura to her house.

* * *

The next morning, Shirou awoke to an unusual sight. Ria, leaning over his futon with a grimmer than usual look to her face.

"Ria?" he said before gasping and sitting upright. "Did I oversleep that much? I'll get ready right now!"

He started to stand up when Ria put a hand on his shoulder. "No, it is still an hour before you would normally awake."

"Then what's the problem?"

The woman clenched her jaw and looked to where Fujimura-sensei and Sakura stood in the doorway. Sakura's normal cheery face was somehow unreadable, as if her emotions were completely buried somehow. Fujimura-sensei, however looked stricken.

"There will be no school today," Fujimura noted. "Last night, some students..."

"There was a killing," Ria finished succinctly. "Several girls of the Kyudo club. Sakura-chan's brother remains missing at this point."

There was no sign of a physical response from Sakura at this, but Shirou wouldn't have noticed if there were. He was picturing the faces of the kids from yesterday and remembering Shinji asking him to do the clean up in her place.

He had said no.

Face terror-struck, Shirou stood up and rushed out of the room, passing by Fujimura and Sakura as Ria watched through grinding teeth.

"Senpai!" Sakura called out, starting to follow him.

"Let him go," Ria snapped. "He'll need time to adjust. Give it to him."

"Sakura-chan," Taiga noted. "I think we all need some breakfast..."

"Oh, right, Fujimura-sensei," the girl responded before turning back in the house toward the kitchen.

Taiga stepped into Shirou's room, sliding the door closed behind her.

"Eh, you're just going to send her off to do the work?" Ria snapped, though her words lacked the normal bite. The little blonde woman marched forward sharply toward the taller Japanese woman.

The swordswoman was mildly surprised when Taiga burst into tears and wrapped her hands around Ria, leaning her face into the English woman's shoulder as her own shoulders shook. "They were my students! I gave that duty."

Slowly, Ria's arms circled around to Taiga's back and held her. Her angry tone was almost affectionate when she spoke. "Yakuza brat. It wasn't your fault either."

It didn't take long for Ria to start to feel something else besides the shaking of the woman in her arms. And she gritted her teeth as she felt the contract forming.

Damn it! Why couldn't the blasted thing leave them alone.

* * *

Shirou slammed open the door to his storeroom and moved to the far end of the wall. There it had been, his chance to save someone and he had let it pass by.

"Damn it!" he yelled. "Damn it! I was useless. Worse than useless!"

He failed to note as the floor behind started to glow softly in response to his growing emotional state.

"Something's going on that's killing people and I'm just doing nothing!" he snapped. That's why it was his friends this time. It was punishment for standing by and just watching. "I swear, I'll find out what's going on and I'll find someway to stop it. I swear it."

And with that there was a bright flash of light behind him. Twisting in place, he turned about and watched as a figure formed in the middle of the blue light behind him. Slowly it resolved into the shape of a girl, approximately the same size and build as Ria, but the skin was soft and healthy rather than Ria's pallor. The hair was a long, soft gold rather than the faded yellow Ria had. The girl turned to look at Shirou and showed bright green eyes over a smiling face.

She was garbed in an beautiful, gleaming white armor outlined in a somber black that did little more than highlight the apparent purity of the white. There was an extravagant skirt, like the overlapping petals of a beautiful white flower and she held in her hands she carried a long, gleaming white spear and there was a smaller blade, a knife with a white hilt, upon her waist.

And she smelled familiar.

Shirou had long known that Ria Penn was not human, and this girl smelled very similar. Perhaps a relative from the same family of beings or spirits come to see the woman?

"Servant Lancer," the girl said with a smile and performing a brief curtsy. "Here I stand by your summons. Answer me. Are you my master?"

She ended the curtsy, bringing her hand to her mouth to half cover her smiling mouth and highlight the slight blush that developed as she looked him over and asked the question.

Shirou swallowed unable to speak as he took in the beauty of the girl and her seemingly shy manner.

Before he could answer, there was the sound of a crash at the front of the gate and the coquettish girlishness of Lancer faded away quickly as she darted forward, all seriousness now.

"What...wait!" Shirou shouted as he realized what the girl was doing. He didn't know what that crash was, but he didn't feel quite right at letting the woman be the one to face it. Especially if it was something innocent that brought her to the attention of everyone else.

"But this is a potential threat, Master," Lancer protested in a pouty voice that Shirou knew was partly feigned. "And good little girls protect their Masters."

Shirou moved to follow the girl quickly outside as she rushed for the gate, spear in hand. He rounded a corner and watched as the girl launched into a high leap, spear coming point down in an attempt to drive through the body of the near giant that stood there beside the destroyed gate. Shirou paused where he stood then and watched as the man shifted aside, rising a massive xiphos to turn aside the spear.

"Ah, is that anyway to treat a guest?" the man asked as he moved aside into stance. "I apologize about the gate, but it wasn't quite as strong as I thought it would be."

"That's all right," Lancer responded with a closed-eyed smile flipping her hand forward kindly as if a girl dismissing something of no concern. "I'll be sure to fix it after our little meeting is finished, Saber."

"Who are you?" Shirou demanded.

A gasp drew his attention to the side and he saw Sakura at the entrance staring forward, hands covering her mouth and her eyes wide. He could hear footsteps coming up indicating that Ria and Fuji-nee were also coming to the front.

"As your Servant has said, I am Saber," the large man answered. "And my Master sent me to suggest that her brother hurry up and summon before it was too late. But it seems this wasn't necessary."

"Her brother..." Lancer commented, glancing back toward Shirou who looked confused himself.

"Since that's done, I think I'll just test out the capabilities of your Servant, Emiya Shirou," the large man noted as he swung the sword down in a swift, efficient path. Lancer's girlish expression vanished in a flash as she put her spear to the side to block the strike and then swing the blade around to slash down through her enemy, or would have if the huge man hadn't nimbly side-stepped.

The exchange continued as Shirou watched, uncertain how to respond to what he was seeing. There was one more pass, Lancer's attack struck wide as she barely avoided the response and then a third form joined the match with a wild roar of anger, wearing black plate armor and swinging a great black sword that Shirou had only rarely ever seen.

Ria swung down at Saber managing to draw a line of blood and distracting the man just briefly enough for Lancer to duck under his massive arm, leaving one hand on her spear to keep the xiphos from splitting her open and dropping her hand to the knife at her side.

"Carnwennan!" Lancer shouted as she slashed with the knife at near point blank range. The seemingly small weapon tore open a wide slash through the man's body and showering the area in blood as the giant stumbled back and fell to his knees, a broad hand covering his chest and the other leaning the Xiphos into the ground.

Ria stepped forward then swinging her blade in a wide swing to cut the through the man's throat. Fujimura and Sakura both gasped then as the massive form fell back. Lancer and Ria both stood there, panting and eyeing each other very warily, as if searching something in the other. Lancer in her white armor and spear standing to the right side of where Shirou stood and Ria in her black armor and sword standing on the left.

Shirou tried to find a way to process what he'd just scene while Fujimura held Sakura comfortingly and stared out toward Ria and the other woman. Sakura seemed to have the same blank, emotionless expression that she'd had earlier, the surprise fading out of her body.

"Well," a voice stated, crashing the tense calm that had settled over the scene as everyone turned to watch, in sheer disbelief, the body of the defeated man rising up from the ground and rubbing at his throat as he took in the wide-eyed shock of his opponents. "My Master's estimation of her brother is a bit low. Not when he has a familiar such as this on top of Lancer."

Ria snarled as she was characterized as a familiar.

"How did you..." Lancer asked.

"One more test, I think," Saber said in a considering tone. He took a deep breath and pulled back his xiphos. "Nine Lives!"

The blade lashed out once, blasting the black sword wide from its guard position in front of her. It flashed again, almost simultaneously, throwing the white spear in Lancer's right hand aside. A third strike blasted the black sword from Ria's hand and sent it careening across the yard. A fourth strike cut through the armor of Lancer's arm, forcing her to drop the knife. A fifth strike sliced through Ria's body as she tried to bull forward with her shoulder. A sixth tossed Lancer backwards as her white armor was rent open. A seventh slammed into Ria's shoulder. The eighth swung horizontally across Lancer's stomach.

Shirou was charging forward the moment the giant had pulled his sword back and he watched as both nearly identical women were pummeled and refused to completely fall off their feet. Ria was staggering and glaring defiantly as Lancer leaned on the butt of spear and stared equally determined.

A Ninth attack was coming, sweeping to cut across both the two warrior women starting with Lancer. The white-armored woman struggled to bring her spear into position and then Shirou slammed into her back, shoving her aside.

"Shirou! No!" Ria shouted as the blade slammed hard into her charge.

The young man fell aside as the giant watched him crumple and glanced curiously toward his sword.

"Saber! This shall not be accepted!" the white-armored woman shouted as she lunged forward with her spear.

"I'm sending you back to the Throne!" Ria proclaimed viciously darting forward and the black sword somehow reforming in her hands.

The injury weakened attacks were diverted aside and a hard backhanded blow was struck across Lancer's face sending her backwards just as a powerful kick met the stomach of Ria and dented her armor inward.

The giant looked down on the three battered forms with a serious, considering expression. "You two each remained standing after four strikes from my weapon and your Master survived the ninth. Truly remarkable people. It is sad that we must be on opposite sides of this war. Maybe the next time we are summoned to the same place, it will be for a shared purpose."

He looked up toward where Fujimura stood holding Sakura tightly and nodded at them.

"I'm supposed to kill witnesses," he thought with a frown. "But allies of a Master shouldn't be a problem. Take care of them," he said. "When my Master really sends me, I might not be able to leave off on testing them." Saber glanced over toward where Lancer was struggling to stand. "And take care of the witch-killing knife, there are other enemies in this War it might be more effective against."

That said he turned around and walked off, fading away as he did so.

Instantly, Fujimura was rushing forward with Sakura.

"Shirou-Kun! Ria-chan!"

"Senpai! Penn-san!"

* * *

_King Arthur is associated with at least five magical weapons, six if you count Excalibur's sheath as separate._

_Carnwennan "Little White Knife" appears in **Culhwch and Olwen**_. _a story where the hero Culhwch appeals to King Arthur to aid in a quest to when his lady love, Olwen. The story of the hero and the woman is used as a framework to tell many other stories of the adventures of Arthur and his men. Among them is the story of Arthur using Carnwennan to split "The Very Black Witch" in half. _

_Rhongomyniad is Arthur's magic spear, it's name means either "spear striker" or "spear slayer" and a search for images connected to Rhongomyniad found one of the official images of the battle between Arturia and Mordred showing that she may have used it to kill Mordred in Nasuverse._


	2. Chapter 2

Rin Tohsaka was maintaining a strong outward posture and expression, but internally she was a huddled mass of self recrimination. She stood on a small hill overlooking the school and watched as police investigated the scene of the crime. The bodies had been removed hours ago and now they were looking through the wreckage that Berserker had left in his wake.

She knew for a fact that they weren't going to find anything conclusive. There would be some traces of her just for the fact that she went to school there. Of the spirits, nothing would be left behind.

This was her fault.

* * *

The black haired girl sat against the railing of the roof, leaning her head onto her knees and arms as she waited for sign from her Servant nearby.

"He's here," the voice of the man in the red and black said. "He must have been waiting for sunset. He'll be attacking."

"Such killing intent," Rin whispered with a shiver.

"Yo," the voice was savage and feral, barely holding to the syntax of educated speech.

The little magus looked up past the invisible form of her Servant to catch sight of a man in blue leathers with metal pauldrons atop the high fence in a half-crouch, half-perch.

"Beautiful night, isn't it? Don't you two think so too?"

"He can see Caster!" Rin gasped. "He must be a Servant."

"So, and if you know that then you must be my enemy!" the Servant growled as he traced a series of burning symbols into the air.

Almost instantly, the man's body distorted, muscles bulging and eyes bugging out noticeably just before he leaped up into the air and came down like a bullet, a wide smile showing of his teeth.

"Caster!" Rin shouted as she started running. Behind her, swords started falling out of the sky forcing the wild, blue suited man to twist about sharply and take a new path towards his identified foe.

Rin herself twisted the first of gifts that she had from her Servant, a simple ring adorning one of her fingers. Then she leaped over the edge of the roof. The magus admitted to a slight shiver of fear as the ground rushed up to meet her and wondered if the amulet truly would keep her from harm. Then her reinforced body hit the ground with little more than a shiver as she rolled into the fall.

The sound of a crash above her dragged her eyes further up moments before the wall of third story erupted outward and the insane blue Servant was sailing down towards her. She pushed off with her legs, hoping the reinforcement she'd called on hadn't already faded and rocketed back away from the attack. Then she was certain the amulets brief effect was gone and she'd have to let it rest. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the charging Servant, eyes fixing on those too white teeth as she tried to unleash a barrage of gandrs only to see them peel almost completely away.

At the last minute, her own Servant appeared in front of her, hands filled with black and white blades as he intercepted the blue-suited man's assault.

"Good...sword...for...a...magus," the madman declared, as if having difficulty with the words. The rabid warrior wheeled back to avoid a pair of slashes and then leaped up, over Caster's head landing on his feet behind the man, and with an open path at Rin again.

"Rin down!" Caster shouted, slashing out with his twin dao which somehow multiplied several times over, each streaking on a separate arc to intercept the blue-suited maniac. Even at the same time, Caster moved around his Master and held out a hand to his back in case the Berserker leaped at their back again.

As Caster, he had the capability to maintain Rho Aias in one direction while directing another of collection elsewhere. He could completely shield Rin's back and focus on herding Berserker while preparing something more sure. However, he didn't want to reveal all his trump cards yet. Especially when it looked as if Berserker still had trumps up his sleeve. There was a cunning to this Berserker even now that hadn't faded with his sanity.

Berserker rolled back at the last moment that a full escape was possible, only needing to slap aside one saber to open a path for him and twisting almost impossibly to come back in line to attack. Caster recovered his dao and watched as Berserker leapt over him then twisted at an erratic angle. The man in red cut across with one weapon to block aside the man's lunging attack, and noted that the blade failed to cut into the Blue Servant's arm. At the same time a sword appeared out of thin air and struck at a tangent aimed for the Servant's blindspot.

Rin was trying to help, but she and Caster were being pressed, not getting the time they needed to prepare anything larger than the basic rain of swords that was Caster's basic attack. If her Servant were the standard Caster class, she'd likely have been dead already, but fortunately he apparently qualified for the more battle oriented classes as well.

As it stood, her presence on the battle-field was forcing Caster to protect her first instead of setting the battle the way they wanted to go. This hadn't been their original plan, given Caster's abilities and limits, but the immediacy and violence of the attack had surprised her. Even now, she was having trouble keeping track of where her enemy was at any given time.

"Caster," she started to reluctantly say, meaning to command Caster to unleash at least one of his trumps. That intention was made moot, however, as something caught the blue maniac's attention and the man was leaping away from them.

The surprise of it caused Rin to freeze and it wasn't until she tracked the motion that she saw Berserker punching a fist through the chest of one girl. Her eyes tracked to another girl sprawled on the ground, with her head crushed, and in that one moment, the terrified scream of the third girl was cut off with a bitter cracking sound. Immediately after, Berserker was charging outward into the night, chasing something or someone Rin hadn't seen.

"Stop him! But don't risk yourself!" Rin shouted, pointing ahead. Caster nodded grimly and set himself in pursuit. He passed cleanly by Rin, not even stopping to watch her pause as the three dead girls came into her line of sight. She remembered that half-second in which she'd frozen, confused at Berserker's sudden change of direction.

"Too slow," she whispered, fists shaking. "I'm just too slow."

* * *

Caster was beside her now, invisible and protective. In a moment, they would retreat to her mansion and the bounded field he was forming there. The man's magecraft in general was strangely lacking for a Caster, but there could be no question that he had mastered some impressive feats of magic, however specialized they were.

"He escaped?" she asked, not really expecting an answer given that he had already told her as much. "And the one he was chasing."

"Another Master," Caster explained. "He was carried away by his Servant, but I did not manage to catch a good look at whoever they were. Once there were no Masters, Berserker calmed down and then left the field himself."

"That means that one of the other Masters was at my school," she commented irritably. "Berserker probably just complicated things for us. What class do you think the other Servant was?"

"Hard to say, Rin," Caster answered. "Depending on the identity of the Heroic Spirit, any of the other classes can accomplish such a rescue. Your ring should be recovered."

"Hmm," Rin noted looking down at the simple band of steel. "To be honest, I wasn't sure whether to take this seriously at first. But this is a rather useful thing."

"A thanks to the Caster class," her Servant admitted. "Otherwise I would only be able to reinforce myself with any reliability. Tonight I'll have another useful toy for you, but I don't know that I'll have anymore tricks after this next one."

"That's fine," she commented with a nod of acceptance. "Let's return to the mansion. Tonight, we'll begin tracking the Master behind the gas leaks."

* * *

Lancer looked across the field as the purple haired girl ran to her Master's side, calling his name. Not that she needed such an identification. The teacher hesitated briefly, eyes flashing in worry between the black knight and the fallen boy.

"Take care of Shirou," the dark-armored swordswoman declared. "I'll be fine."

"Right, Sakura-chan, let me help you and then I'll call the police," Taiga started to say.

"No!" Sakura, Lancer and the swordswoman declared at once, drawing looks from the teacher.

Both the blonde women glanced toward the purple-haired girl questionably.

"That is to say, Sensei," Lancer said idly, trying to keep a soothing smile to her face. "That calling the police might be the surest way to get us all killed."

The color drained from Taiga's face then. "Who are you anyway?"

"She's...family of some kind," Ria commented. "I'll take care of her, get Shirou inside. He'll be fine if you get him to safety." The black-armored woman pushed herself to her feet and grimly leveled her sword at Lancer.

"We'll be fine," Lancer added waving them on demurely and climbing to her own feet, sword held straight and high at her side.

"Sensei," Sakura said desperately.

After a moment, Taiga nodded reluctantly and stepped inside to quickly carry Shirou out of sight and Ria's eyes searched the space around them.

"Carnwannen, Little White Hilt," Ria commented nodded to the knife on the ground. "A knight's knife, used to give a merciful end to a valiant enemy who is dying slowly. This one in particular's true power is in its use against magi and those blessed by mysteries great and small, turning an enemy's personal enchantment's against them for the space of the slash. It always finds its target when thrown." She gestured with her sword to the spear. "Rhongomyniad, Spear Striker, originally said to be crafted for the use of an archangel, it fell to Earth and became part of the world of men before any angel so much as touch it. At times, it is said to thrust with all the weight of Heaven."

"Oh, you know my weapons," Lancer said, leaning the spear against her shoulder and clapping her hands together cheerfully. "Not many people know these. I am very honored, milady." She curtsied with a clear wince, though her smile remained. "I'm sorry to say that I cannot return the honor. Your visage is...a bit uncomfortable to tell the truth."

She clasped the lance again and shrugged apologetically as Ria glared at her.

"I don't care what you find uncomfortable, Servant," Ria snapped. "Have I your word that you'll protect Shirou?"

"That is sort of implied in my basic nature, isn't it?" Lancer asked, acting slightly confused.

"I've seen betrayal between Masters and Servants before," the black knight commented. "Give me your word."

The humor faded instantly from Lancer's face and she opened her eyes into a narrowed glare meeting Ria's own. "I swear on my honor as the Princess of Knights, that my soul will answer for any harm to my Master. The Throne's preservation be damned."

Ria slowly nodded and lowered her sword, the blade vanishing even as the black armor vanished, leaving behind a rather pretty, if moderately gothic, black dress. She pointed toward the knife imperiously.

"Recover your weapons and rest inside," Ria said. "Shirou will recover soon. We can discuss who you are, _Princess_, at that time."

Lancer moved to pick up and sheath her knife. Then the armor and weapons vanished, leaving behind an extravagantly medieval white dress as the woman skipped forward to grab Ria's arm in a excited manner. "And I'll be sure to ask abou_t _Milady _Black Knight_. In the meantime, what can you tell me about Shirou?"

Ria's eyes widened in disbelief as her mouth open and teeth clinched. She stared in silence at the slender white hands grabbing her arm and the form, so similar to her own leaning against her. She noted the sly, shifting eyes and the girlish twitter of a giggle in the other woman's voice as she leaned in conspiratorially.

"So, what is he then, gladius? Arming sword? Claymore?" She shivered then in an anticipatory way that had Ria's voice building into a growl. "Surely not a dagger. Oh, I know. He's certainly a _lance!_" Lancer noted the rising fury in the other woman's expression. "What, no girl talk?"

"Unhand my arm before I rip yours off!" Ria shouted.

* * *

Ria looked back toward the entry where Lancer was sitting until she "wouldn't be tracking blood in the house." The other woman's manner was disengaging and sounded impractical given the blood already trailed through the house, but it wasn't hard to see her taking up a guard position inside the door. The lance was still unmaterialized but the knife was back on her person, hidden in the folds of her dress.

She took her job seriously, as well as the duties of a guest when the house is in danger.

That left her able to move to Shirou's room where Sakura was sitting at his side, staring and pulling back as she watched the cut on his body slowly, but visibly, close. That caused Ria's eyes to open slightly. The recovery shouldn't have been that noticeable, even with her nearby. He was healing almost as fast as she was right now.

As soon as Ria appeared in the door, holding her own injuries for the moment, Taiga turned from where she stood and whirled on the black knight. "Ri...," she stopped herself. "Big sister, what is happening here. Who are those people!?"

The dark knight grimaced, hesitating and Fujimura took the chance to dart forward and tug at the shoulder of her dress, revealing the disappearing injury there.

"What is this?"

"Tch," Ria grimaced. "It's best to wait for Shirou to wake up for the full situation. As to this," she pointed to where he was healing. She considered Sakura and the girl's response to the suggestion to call the police and decided to edit her response. "Kiritsugu had access to a sacred relic and used it to heal Shirou when he found the boy. There have been lingering benefits."

"And what about you," Taiga asked.

The blonde woman gritted her teeth then. "In my case, I'm not human."

Sakura showed no reaction, maintaining that same emotionless appearance that she'd had when they mentioned the students being killed.

"Not...human?" Taiga gasped darting back. "What are you?"

"We'll talk about that when Shirou is awake," Ria said, looking to the two of them. "Sakura-chan. Sakura _Matou_." Sakura winced and looked toward Ria, emotion entering her eyes again.

"Penn-san?"

"Can I trust you to take care of Shirou?" the black knight demanded sharply.

"Yes, Penn-san," Sakura said firmly.

Taiga confusedly looked between them. "Someone tell me what's going on?"

* * *

It was night, the moon was rising in the distance, the night was clear and peaceful and it was neither too hot nor too cold. Shirou sat beside his father as they both looked out into the night sky. Behind them, Ria was sipping her tea and leaning forward.

"When I was a child I used to aspire to be a Hero of Justice," Kiritsugu said quietly.

Ria looked up with narrowed eyes and turned toward where Kiritsugu sat, measuring whether or not to add anything.

"Used to, you mean you stopped?" Shirou asked.

"Unfortunately I did," Kiritsugu confirmed. "It was easy as a child, but turned out to be too hard for an adult."

Ria nodded and turned back to her tea.

"Well, I'll become one for you then," Shirou said, drawing a sharp look from Ria. "It was too hard for you because you were an adult, but it should be fine since I'm still young."

Shirou could see, now, as if viewing from outside, Ria tense up at the comment and start looking toward his father.

"That's a relief," the man whispered.

Shirou, the child, smiled and looked out toward the night for a few seconds. Until suddenly, something occurred to him and he turned toward his Father in a sudden realization that his father had stopped breathing.

"He has to say more, Shirou," Ria said as the tears rolled down his cheeks. "He has to say more."

She stood up and then moved around to grab Kiritsugu by the shoulders. "Damn it Kiritsugu! Don't make that your last words to him! Say something more!"

Her face was as enraged as Shirou had ever seen it, but tears were rolling down her face as well.

"Kiritsugu, I am _talking _to you! Say something more!"

He'd never been certain whether Ria was enraged or grieved at that moment, and even now, he still wasn't.

* * *

Shirou woke up and found Sakura sitting beside him. "Oh, Senpai. You're awake."

"Sakura..." he said. "I had a...dream..." his eye wandered and he caught sight of a blood-stained shirt. One of his shirts. "Ria! And the other girl...are they all right?"

"They're waiting for you to wake up," Sakura admitted. "To explain everything to you and Fujimura-sensei."

At that, the door to Shirou's door opened, revealing the beautiful blonde with green eyes standing there and her face moving from a simple smile to a brightly cheerful one as she saw Shirou. "Ah, Shirou-kun, I thought I heard you. You gave me really quite a scare there." She leaned in and tsked shaking her finger from side to side as she continued reproachfully. "Naughty Master. Why I almost felt I failed before I started."

"I'm sorry...?". Even Shirou was uncertain as to whether he was apologizing or asking for clarification of what she was saying.

"Well, no matter," Lancer decided. "Sakura, come on let's help Shirou along."

Shirou started to stand. "I can get there on my own."

"Ah, but this is _punishment_," Lancer commented, taking hold of one of Shirou's arms before turning to Sakura. "Ah, Sakura, wasn't it? Could you take his other arm..."

"Uh, l...like this?" Sakura asked, face turning bright red even as Shirou sputtered trying to get a word in edgewise.

Lancer looked over and seemed a bit ambivalent about Sakura's technique, which looked to be purely for support of the body. "I suppose it will work. Well, then, here we go."

Lancer started to half-pull Shirou along. For all the...implications...that rose to mind from Lancer's position next to Shirou, he had to admit that she was supporting his weight and keeping him from straining his injuries. Sakura was mostly trying to do the same, while being chided for not looking clingy enough by the cheerful Servant.

"I don't think this is the best idea," Shirou tried to protest as he was half-carried into the living room, with one girl holding one side and another seeming to cling to him like a lovesick puppy.

The reason for why he gave that morning made itself known in two short sounds: a gasp and a growl; followed by a pair of sudden declarations.

"Shirou-kun! What do you think you are doing?" "Shirou, your Lancer will want to unhand you soon."

"In a moment_, _Milady," the white dressed girl said. "Please, have a seat, Master."

"Shirou..." Ria growled.

"This is his punishment for endangering himself," Lancer commented casually as she sat down and settled herself, straightening her dress.

"That's your idea of a punishment?" Taiga asked with narrowed eyes.

"Well, he's clearly one of these boys that is shy and idealistic and the very thought of taking advantage of a woman magically bond to obey his orders would be abhorrent to him," Lancer commented, she turned over and latched herself onto his arm. "Isn't that right, Ma-a-ster?" She ended by lightly tapping his nose with her finger.

"Please let go of my arm," Shirou said as he felt sweat accumulate.

"I'd ask one of you two to do it, but there's already one Oedipus," Lancer noted.

Ria's hand was itching to hold her blade as she saw the uncomfortable and uncertain Shirou sit down at the table across from her. Beside her, Taiga was likewise seeming to consider seeking out her shinai for a little retaliation of her own, though her attention seemed split between Lancer and Shirou. Sakura just sat down looking ashamed and hanging her head, though Ria thought she caught a slight smile.

"Now that we're all here," Taiga asked, starting angry but deflating quickly as she thought back to the reason they weren't at school today. "Please tell me what is going on?"

Lancer raised a hand to forestall Ria from speaking before leaning to the side and looking across Shirou toward where Sakura was sitting. "Sakura-chan?"

The purple haired girl flushed at the attention and hesitantly looked up toward the more vivacious of the two blondes. "Y...yes?"

"Can you start the explanation please?" Lancer suggested.

"Why would Sakura start the explanation?" Shirou asked.

"Because she was as quick to say no police as I or the black knight," Lancer explained simply once again abandoning her girlish persona for a moment and staring with narrowed eyes. "And I want to see what she knows."

Sakura looked up to meet the look and then back down. A moment later she caught Ria's face and noted that the woman wasn't pushing, but remembered that Ria had used her family name for the first time earlier. It was clear the same thought had occurred to the darker woman. If the Servants felt they couldn't trust her...

"You're imagining things," Taiga protested. "There's no way that Sakura is in anyway involved in..."

"Servants," Sakura whispered. "Penn-san and...this girl are Servants and Shirou is a Master."

"What does that mean?" Taiga asked. "We know Kiritsugu hired Big Sister some time in the past and she now works for Shirou, but how does that explain giants and swordfights?"

"It's the Holy Grail War," Sakura explained quietly. "Seven magi summon the spirits of seven great Heroes of the past..." she glanced toward Penn-san, embarrassed with what she was about to say. "...sometimes villains." Thankfully, the pale woman took no offense and simply sipped her tea while glaring at Lancer. "The Seven Servants and Seven Masters. And they fight until one remains to collect the prize."

"Magic, you're saying this is magic?" Taiga protested, stopping short as she tried to think of a way to otherwise describe vanishing giants. "Well, I suppose that explains some things..." she didn't sound at all happy about that admission.

"Is this why people are getting hurt and killed?" Shirou asked sharply.

"Yes," Ria answered. "Some Masters have been known to order their Servants to devour the lives of humans in order to make them stronger. And some Servants are just depraved enough to enjoy doing so regardless."

"Is there a way to stop it?" Shirou asked.

"Only when you are the last Master and claim the Grail," Sakura whispered.

"It doesn't make sense," Taiga grumbled. "Big Sister has been here as long as I can remember. She wasn't summoned by Shirou out of nowhere."

"I'm confused as well," Lancer admitted. "That giant admitted that he was Saber, but then Milady Black Knight also seems to be Saber. I've never heard of a class being repeated in a war. It is possible for one Master to have two Servants, but that is quite rare. And I've never heard it as a summons to start, but rather a development late in the war."

"You were Dad's Servant," Shirou suggested. "Isn't that right?"

"No, no, Ria-chan is not some sort of summoned demon or something!" Taiga declared angrily. "She's your guardian. She's my...She's our friend! She's sort of a violent tyrant. And she's angry all the time, but she's our friend! And you, who are you supposed to be?!"

She whirled on Lancer.

"I'll answer if Master wants me to," Lancer returned coquettishly. "But given the possible presence of another Master, I'd rather keep that to myself for now."

"Sakura-chan is not one of these Masters!" Taiga protested.

The purple-haired girl frowned, retreating into her expressionless mask and Shirou turned to look at her with concern. "Are you all right?"

She nodded slowly.

"What prize could be so important that people fight to the death with crazy, giant men?" Taiga demanded.

"The path to Akasha," Sakura whispered. "The chance for true immortality. A single wish made true."

"Wait, like a genie in the bottle wish?" Taiga asked.

Ria chuckled bitterly and set down her tea cup.

"Yakuza brat, if you want to know the truth of what the winners get," the pale woman noted. "Look to Kiritsugu and I. Pain, hate, rage, betrayal, degradation, regret, dishonor, shame, death," she flexed her hand, staring at it. "We learned later that the Grail had been corrupted in the prior war to our own. It is more a demon than a sacred relic now."

She looked up and matched her eyes with Sakura and Lancer. She noted Sakura looking wide-eyed and shocked at the revelation, but Lancer simply smiled and nodded curiously.

"I'm here because that man and I were the last winners," she explained. She could go into detail about how Kiritsugu was the one that discovered the true nature of the Grail, but the fact that the prize was trash was the point she was trying to make. "It killed him and left me...this way."

"So that's why you bear the mantle of the black knight," Lancer noted, she sighed and then smiled. "Very well, I will not inquire as to your name, Milady. Let it remained unsullied."

"Who would want to be the black knight?" Taiga asked. "Aren't they the bad guys?"

"No," Shirou noted. "Ria told us about this once, remember. The mantle of the black knight is taken when a knight seeks to travel incognito."

"Like going ronin in a samurai tale," Taiga commented.

"Usually, it is more temprary than that, and normally there is little dishonor attached," Ria corrected. "Mine is a special case." She turned toward Lancer. "You don't seem upset to hear the Grail is trash."

"I didn't come for the Grail," Lancer admitted. "I came...to breathe again. For a short time at least."

"Okay, okay," Taiga said, sitting down an inch or two closer to Ria. "But what about the guy that just tried to kill you?"

"He wasn't trying to kill us," Shirou commented.

The boy had been listening to the way the conversation went and was looking toward where Sakura sat at his side, trying to gauge how the girl felt. Lancer remained a puzzle as she let herself settle back into what was seeming to be her normal, carefree attitude. Shirou didn't know how to respond to the woman at all, but she certainly seemed lively and troublesome. Ria and Taiga were still glaring at the way Lancer had flanked Shirou with Sakura and herself.

"He slashed R...Big Sister with a sword four times and almost killed you!" Taiga protested.

"Shirou is correct," Ria commented. "That was a message, a warning."

"Saber showed us his face," Lancer noted, ticking off points on her fingers daintily, "gave us hints as to his Master's identity, showed us at least two of his Noble Phantasms and brought home the seriousness of the situation. But we were at his mercy in the end. Had he wished it, we would have been out of this fight already. He could even have done it just by killing me and sending me back to the Throne without further hurting Milady Black Knight or Master."

"Do...do I have a sister?" Shirou asked.

Ria looked up and sighed. "You do. Her mother's...family denied him the right of seeing her after we attempted to destroy the Grail. There didn't seem to be a point of telling you about her until now."

"Might I remind everybody," Lancer commented before again pointing toward Sakura. "Potential second Master?"

"What does that mean?" Shirou asked sharply. "If the Grail is a lie, there's no reason for the Masters to fight."

"Sakura-chan is not involved," Taiga insisted.

"Sakura," Ria commented. "Sakura-chan. I need the truth from you if I can allow you back in this house. I will take you at your word...until proven otherwise."

The girl started shaking and huddling in on herself.

"Big sister! You can't be serious treating her like that."

"For her safety and ours," Ria barked, turning toward the other woman. "We need to know who is a target."

Sakura hesitantly pulled up her sleeve and showed a pair of marks on her arm.

"I just summoned," she whispered. "Someone else is Master."

"Can that work?" Shirou asked.

"I have seen this method in the last war," Ria admitted even as she eyed the two Command seals. "Someone of stronger magic potential provides the prana and someone else gives the commands."

"Which Servant is it?" Lancer asked.

Sakura glanced toward Ria's sharp look and the nod there before answering. "Assassin. I don't know her name. Her name doesn't really matter, she treats me kindly."

"Okay, that's enough of questioning Sakura!" Shirou declared. "Where do we go from here?"

"Well, that's your choice, Master," Lancer noted. "You are the one that Grail chose as Master. Whatever path we go will be determined by what you want to do."

"Just leave this someone else, Shirou," Taiga insisted. "This is too dangerous to play with."

"Ria?" Shirou asked.

"I am against getting involved," she noted. "Had I learned the seven Masters had all summoned, I would have taken you out of the area. And I'll admit to a certain desire to destroy Lancer and drag you out of the area regardless," she fixed the woman in question with a glare.

"No offense taken," Lancer said lightly, ignoring the fact that Ria hadn't suggested that she meant no offense.

Ria growled. "But there is always the chance she might win, and then you would be weaker than you are now. So." And her lip curled into a half-snarl, half-sneer as she continued speaking. "I will go with what you decided and make sure that my sword is at your side."

Shirou nodded as he accepted the anger, Ria knew what he was going to decide. She hated it, but she wouldn't deny it for exactly the reason that she stated.

"Is there a possibility of Assassin's Master coming after Sakura?" Shirou asked.

Sakura cringed into herself.

"Highly likely, they'll want to control her as the source of their Servant's continued existence," Ria admitted.

"Could she stay here until this is over?" Shirou asked.

"You can't do that!" Sakura gasped. "It's too dangerous!"

"I'm not going to let you be hurt," Shirou insisted turning to look at her.

"You're my student," Taiga said. "I'm not letting you be in danger either."

Ria turned to give an arched eyebrow toward Taiga at that comment. The woman was good with her shinai, especially after ten years of sparring with her, but she had no idea what she was saying. Still, it was an admirable declaration. She sighed and shook her head.

"My duty requires that I protect one who has been a frequent guest under the roof I protect," she admitted.

"I'm perfectly willing to add more girls to the party," Lancer added before smiling with sidelong fluttering eyes at everybody else in the room. "Think of the _games_."

Ria sputtered and spat out her tea as she let out a half-gargling growl of rage. "How does any knight become such a lewd thing as you."

"Oh, Milady Black Knight, that was absolute torture," Lancer said cheerfully with a giggle at the end.

For their part, Shirou sighed and hung his head as Sakura blushed to her roots and Taiga looked about to lift up into one of her roars.

* * *

_SOME OF THE FOLLOWING COULD BE CONSIDERED SPOILER FOR DOWN THE ROAD_

_So, comparing the unformatted stats of the various classes and the stats of the characters from F/SN, this is what I worked out for stats in the revealed characters so far. _

_I used the canon Saber stats for Shirou as starter for Lancer and Ria and reduced a couple on Ria due to the curse she suffers. Ria's no longer spirit, meaning she can no longer claim the grail, but she can still use her Noble Phantasms so she can still fight Servants._

_For Lancer's weapons, Carnwennan deals damage based on the Rank of any supernatural enhancements present on the target. It might also be able to cut away curses, really, by turning them back on the caster, but that was a thought I just barely had here. Rhongomyniad's back story was made up by me, there's not much info on Arthur's spear other than "it's magic". I'm reasoning that it can do more damage to a single target than Excalibur, but...well, single target versus WMD._

_I reduced Heracles's Berserker stats by one to account for the loss of Mad Enhancement B. Then I increased them by the difference between Saber and Berserker...to which I have to say...ewwwwwwwwww._

_Cuchulain as Berserker presents an interesting case. Cuchulain's berserk is the "Riastrad" apparently translated as "warp-spasm" and I've interpreted similar to how the Scion RPG handles the power: as a layered, interconnected series of personal enchantments that can be triggered at a single moment and make the user into a battle-frenzied Demon for as long as it lasts. He has basically three levels of berserk as such, starting with triggering the C Mad Enhancement. Basically, he's one of the few Heroic Spirits that has a Noble Phantasm that is OPENED by Berserker rather than locked by it. And no, he hasn't even done the first of the two Riastrads yet.  
_

_Emiya as Caster with Item Construction, Territory Creation and Mana A+++ is insane. Only the fact that he can't quick cast the way Medea can prevents him from being completely and totally broken. As it is, keeping him on his toes with constant assault on Rin is really the only way to keep him from ruling the fight.  
_

_Saber Alter - Ria Penn  
Strength B, Endurance C, Agility C, Mana B, Luck C, N. Phantasm: C  
Magic Resist B, Riding -, Charisma D, Instinct B, Prana Burst: A  
Excalibur: A++, Blackened Blade: C, Avalon EX_

_Lancer - Saber Lily_  
_Strength C, Endurance D, Agility B, Mana C, Luck C, N. Phantasm: C_  
_Magic Resistance A, Charisma B, Instinct A, Prana Burst A_  
_Rhongomyniad A Anti-Personnel_  
_Carnwennan C Anti-Personnel_

_Saber - Heracles_  
_Strength: A++, Endurance A+, Agility A+, Mana A+, Luck A, N Phantasm: B_  
_Magic Resistance: A, Riding: B_  
_Bravery A+, Divinity A, Eye of the Mind (Fake) B_  
_Nine Lives A+ Anti-Phantasm, God-Hand Anti-Unit B_

_Berserker - Cuchulain_  
_Strength C(B/A), Endurance D (C/B), Agility D(B/A+), Mana D, Luck E, N. Phantasm B_  
_Mad Enhancement C, Magic Resistance D (D/A), Battle Continuation A, Disengage C, Divinity B, Rune Magic B, Protection from Arrows B_  
_Riastrad A - Anti-Personnel_  
_Riastrad A - Anti-Army_

_Caster - Emiya_  
_Strength E, Endurance: E, Agility: C, Mana: A+++, Luck: B, N. Phantasm ?_  
_Item Construction A, Territory Creation A_  
_Magecraft C-, Clairvoyance C, Eye of the Mind (True) B_  
_N. Phantasm - Many_

_Given the large number of Servants in the canon Fifth War that really don't care about the Grail, this is the war that could most likely end up with a number of long-running Servants hanging around in the aftermath. Hollow Atraxia presents one possibility for that, that only happened originally because of a flawed experiment, but it seemed that the loop was more the flaw than the reality itself. Depending on when it gets revealed that the Grail is "trash" a number of Servants and Masters could easily go for ignoring the war._

___Unfortunately, that still leaves the Masters and Servants that will push the war, and the ones that are doing evil things for completely unrelated reasons._


	3. Chapter 3

"How long will this take?" Rin asked politely.

The atmosphere around her mansion had taken a decidedly unusual flavor since Caster had started forming the bounded field to secure their head quarters from attack.

It was subtle, but Rin was almost certain that the very sky had changed within the bounds of the walls of her ancestral home. More easily noted for her was the significant increase in the number of "decorative" swords within the walls of the building. There was a vague sense of smoke in the air as well.

"The amulet will be ready tonight," Caster responded.

Rin bit her lip and thought for a moment. She cast her thoughts back to the girls that she had failed to save and grimaced. She could spend the time on her own enchanting, adding to her already substantial arsenal of jewels, but she felt the urge to do something more.

"Will you be fine if I leave you here?" she asked.

"The question is rather will you be fine?" Caster asked, looking up from his work. "I have enough reserves to last quite a while. But you will be vulnerable."

"I plan to remain where there are many people," she assured him. "I want to get a look at the hunting ground while people are still there. Perhaps I'll see something."

"Perhaps something will see you," Caster warned.

"I'll risk it," she protested. "I am not exactly defenseless. And I'll call if I need aid."

She turned around started to walk out the door, not responding to the disapproving snort behind her.

"Is the front walk steeper than it used to be?" she pondered a moment before dismissing that idea as preposterous.

* * *

Shirou wasn't exactly certain how things had developed to this point, now that it had, he was doing his level best to adapt to it. Beside him, Lancer stood in her medieval white dress as she sorted through the shelves and racks of clothes, humming to herself and occasionally asking for advice.

He thought back to the conversation that had resulted in this little trip.

* * *

"Should we stay here?" Shirou asked.

"No," Ria commented. "Saber could return at any time. And I imagine Assassin's acting Master is aware of Sakura's connection here."

"I might know a place we can go," Taiga suggested, biting her lip as Ria turned to look at her.

"We don't need anyone else getting involved here!" the woman commented.

"This is just my place," Taiga commented. "Trust me."

"We can at least look at it," Shirou suggested.

"Fine, but the rest of you need to stay somewhere with people in the meantime," Ria insisted.

"Ah, I have an idea for that," Lancer said with a smile as she chewed slightly on the tip of a finger.

* * *

"Oh this one should be quite fetching on you, Sakura-chan," Lancer declared happily before grabbing the girl and turning her toward the mirror as she held the dress up to Sakura's body.

"Uhh...really?" the girl asked. "I don't know."

"We shall see how it works on you later," Lancer promised, folding the garment and adding it to the other selections.

Shirou wasn't really certain what to think of the situation and it was obvious that Sakura wasn't either. Classmates had died, he still didn't know the names yet, but they were from the Kyudo club and that meant both he and Sakura knew them. Then they were attacked and the discussion that followed. Now...

...they were shopping.

"Ah, Ma-," Lancer noted, turning to face him.

He flinched and looked around to see if anybody was watching before he turned back to the other girl to cut off what she was about to say. "What do you need?"

"Oh," Lancer noted, as if she suddenly forgot. "Perhaps you would do me the favor of bringing that blouse over here?"

He looked over his shoulder to the direction she was pointing towards. The family resemblance to Ria was apparent again in the woman's manner which was commanding and even demanding even though she covered it in honey rather than steel. He thought he he knew which one Lancer was talking about. It was a frilly white blouse that looked like someone had draped rings of flowers around it at different levels. It was probably a size too large for Lancer, actually.

"We have so many things already," Sakura noted quietly. "Maybe we should walk into the store and go to the dressing room?"

"Are you shopping?" a new girl's voice noted. "After this morning?!"

Shirou and Sakura turned to see the scandalized face of Rin Tohsaka looking over them. Shirou felt a little bit guilty then and Sakura herself seemed to shrink in, while Lancer's eyes briefly narrowed and then she stepped forward smiling, and taking Rin's hand in both of hers.

"Ahh, you must be a friend of theirs from school," the blonde woman declare stepping forward. "I'm a relative of Shirou's guardian and unfortunately have misplaced my luggage. And what with the horrible things that have happened, I thought it best to take their mind off of things for a bit."

Shirou blinked as he heard that and suddenly a lot of what the woman was doing made sense.

"I...see," Rin said, glancing toward Shirou and Sakura.

Rin had frozen, staring at the hand as she felt a pressure work through her. Then woman was clearly not human. She'd seen Shirou's Guardian once, and this woman was almost identical with longer hair and a healthier appearance. She hadn't thought of Emiya as a mage before, but if his family had familiars or homonculi like this...or, her eyes widened as she thought of another option.

_"Caster, I may have found another Servant," _she sent quietly.

Her eyes raised up and met the smiling face of Lancer. "Maybe you'd like to join us? You can call me Lily."

Rin resisted the impulse to swallow at the offer. This was the sort of situation Caster had warned her about. For the moment, she seemed safe, but who knows what would happen in a changing room, alone.

"_Are you in danger?"_ Caster asked

"Lily," Shirou said, with a long drawn sigh.

"Hmmm?" the Servant said turning to face him as if some sort of noble turning to a favored courtier. "What do you wish, Shirou?"

"Don't do anything inappropriate with Tohsaka-san," Shirou instructed.

The woman straightened and shot Shirou an amused look. "Shirou, I haven't even started seducing you and Sakura-chan yet. Tohsaka-chan will come later."

Shirou hung his head as Sakura hid her face while Rin sort of stared with an arched eyebrow and wiped at her nose briefly before gathering herself together. "What sort of thing is that to say in open public?"

_"Rin! Are you in danger?"_

_"I...don't think so. I'll keep you apprised."_

* * *

"What is this place, Taiga?" Ria asked, looking about in consideration.

"It was a dojo a while back," she answered. "I used to play here a lot when I was a kid."

The building was on its last legs and had probably been abandoned for close to twenty years, but it was also somewhat off the normal tracks. That had benefits in being hidden, but if this place was found, there wasn't much in the way of defenses. And, to be honest, Sakura was a huge risk whether she meant to be or not.

"This will at least do for the moment," the pale woman commented.

"Ria-chan..." Taiga noted.

"You've called me that twice in front of them," the woman interrupted, whirling around to face Taiga. "You need to be more careful."

Taiga fumed for a moment and then moved up into the smaller woman's face. "You were getting sliced up in front of me! I wasn't thinking of secrets. I was thinking you were going to die!" Almost immediately after saying it, she flinched back from where Ria was glaring at her. "Uh...that is, I believe in you..."

The shorter woman took a deep breath and then let it out slowly before answering. "It was a reasonable assumption."

Taiga hesitated a moment before deciding that Ria's anger was more or less dissipated as much as possible before moving around behind her and gingerly starting to rub Ria's shoulders for a moment before simply hugging her and leaning forward. Ria responded by letting herself fall back into the other woman's arms and reaching up to put her hands on Taiga's arms.

"About...before," Taiga asked hesitantly. "You're really not human?"

"Yes," Ria confirmed. "I understand if this is a problem."

"It doesn't change anything," Taiga responded warmly.

"Tch." It should have changed everything.

The fact that it didn't for Taiga simply underscored how little she knew about the world. Even barring that, was the fact that Ria had been omitting important facts about herself for years. Even if the facts didn't change, the truth did.

But she needed the guilt, so she wouldn't say anything more. The curse made it hard to directly recall any positive emotions, they mostly remained buried and distant, but there was a loophole. She felt disappointment because she was proud of the one who disappointed her. She felt frustration because of her affection for the source. She felt guilt because she shouldn't lie to ones she loved.

If she couldn't feel the light, she could at least look at it from the darkness.

"This place needs to be cleaned," Ria determined succinctly, changing the subject.

"Ahh, Ria-chan," Taiga whispered with a combination of hope and need. "This might be the last privacy we have for a while. We can have everyone clean up later when we meet up with them." She lightly nibbled on the pale woman's ear.

Ah, yes, shame at allowing herself to be seduced, for wanting to be seduced.

"Trying to get out of work?" Ria growled half-heartedly. "Tch, I suppose I could use a massage."

* * *

Sakura was a little bit relieved.

When Lancer had first suggested trying on the various clothes, she'd expected to be dragged into a changing room booth with the woman and having to bear little gropes and skinships. Instead, there had been nothing really inappropriate at all. They had just been changing clothes and then stepping outside to get an opinion from Shirou and the other girls. The only time there were two girls in the same booth was when one of them had a piece of clothing that required an extra set of hands to finish putting it on.

Sakura had to admit she had never before realized just how many pieces of clothing there were that needed someone's help to put on. Such as now, she was having trouble getting to the last of the buttons on this blouse just behind her shoulder.

"Umm...excuse me," she called out tentatively. "Cou...could someone help me here?"

It was much longer before there was a rustling of cloth and she turned, expecting to see Lancer. Instead, there was Rin standing there and Sakura was instantly aware of the two command seals on her arm and wondering if they were visible under the sleeve. To this point, Lancer had somehow managed to keep Sakura from having to deal much with Rin, but apparently the blonde woman was busy or something.

"Tohsaka-san," Sakura said in surprise, feeling the resentment rising within her. "I wasn't expecting you."

"I just finished one outfit," Rin noted casually. "It makes sense to help you finish and take the room when you're finished."

The words came like a twist of the knife. That wasn't exactly what Rin had done before, but it was close enough to be painful to hear. Rin had never made a single sound when Sakura had been sent to the Matou family. She'd stayed at the home they'd been born into and was spared all the misery and torture the Matou family put her through. Even today, she rarely ever acknowledged Sakura for who she was born as.

Just once Sakura wished that Rin would address her as sister. Sakura wasn't sure what she'd do then, perhaps she'd be able to turn the disdain back on the other girl. After all, she had been instructed long ago to assume that anything like a sister or a mother had never existed. Maybe it would be best if Rin turned out to be a Master.

If that were the case, she could no longer ignore Sakura.

"Oh, I see," Sakura said, hesitantly. "Uh, if it wouldn't bother you."

Rin rolled her eyes and moved toward the girl's back to snap the last two buttons. It had taken forever to get out from under that Servant's eyes to get to where she could take a close look at Sakura. Shirou had given that order earlier, but he could be a decoy. Sakura was the best candidate of the two to be a Master, after all, she was a prodigy very much like Rin herself.

"It won't take a moment," Rin promised.

_"I am finished and on my way," _Caster reported. _"Are you having fun with your fashion show?"_

_"This is vital work," _Rin protested. _"I am trying to ascertain which of these two is this woman's Master, and she's not giving me much opportunity."_

Seriously, that was the truth of it. There was nothing at all fun about dressing up in different outfits and showing off in front of a few people. She had not been flustered when the blonde had commented on how lovely her legs were, or flattered when Shirou commented about how cute she looked in one outfit or another. Besides that, most of these outfits were entirely to...cutesy for her liking.

Entirely not her style. She wasn't thinking of purchasing anything.

On the other hand, Sakura had barely talked to her at all. It was always that way, which was for the best. Rin could barely stand to talk to Sakura herself. This was her first failure after all. She hadn't even been able to save her own sister from being taken away. It turned out well enough for Sakura at least. The other girl had grown up with a family, after all. She had people to turn to when she wanted help. She hadn't grown up in an empty household with a rarely present guardian.

All she had to do was look to see that Sakura was healthy and happy. And no matter how much Rin wanted to ask her about her life, her studies in the Matou sorcery or her school life, she couldn't do that. It would be cruel to push that forgotten past at her when she'd so clearly moved past it. Sakura was Matou, Rin was Tohsaka. This was the truth of the magi world and Rin wouldn't be so selfish and crude as to bring that wound to fresh light.

Especially not when they might have to be enemies now. She would not do something so hideously underhanded.

"There you are," Rin said, noting the way Sakura held one of her arms. "Go out and show off for Emiya-kun. And I can get dressed."

"_Is there a chance that these are the cause of the gas leaks?" _Caster pondered. _"Or scouting the same?"_

Shirou watched Sakura step out nervously, glancing back over her shoulder at the room where Tohsaka was. The perfect-student seemed to make Sakura nervous and edgy. Aside from that, however, the outing seemed to be going fairly well. Once "Lily" had admitted that the purpose of the shopping was to distract them, he'd started to get a little less irritated with it. He'd been watching Sakura and even Tohsaka loosening up a little.

So far none of the outfits had been in poor taste the way he'd feared they would be. Lancer's preferences seemed to lean toward frills and very girly looks that worked better on Sakura than Rin, but suggesting that had rubbed the dark-haired Tohsaka quite the wrong way. Lancer was spending a lot of time moving from one dressing room to the next as either Sakura or Rin asked for help getting an outfit on, which drew a sigh from Shirou. Fortunately, with this as well, the Servant's talk of seduction seemed more boast than substance.

Over the last couple of hours, he'd seen incidentally seen all three girls in various states of undress due to them stepping out of the changing rooms without thinking (or caring in one case) a handful of times. The first time Sakura had stepped out with just her bra, she and Shirou both just about died in shock. The first time Tohsaka had done it, she looked like she was about to kill Shirou before Lancer interrupted and attended to whatever it was the girl was asking.

Now, however, they just sort of seemed to forget he was there and focus on the process of getting changed in and out of outfits at the driving insistence of the blonde taskmaster that was sweetly cracking the whip whenever it looked like Tohsaka was trying to satisfy her curiosity about what they were doing there or Sakura was getting nervous. Lancer seemed to have a commanding presence at least the equal of Tohsaka's. Shirou shrugged and decided that the two of them were just having way too much fun to worry about anything.

"Senpai," Sakura said. "How does this look?"

The blouse was pink with long, puffy sleeves and it hung about half-way to Sakura's knees where it lay attractively in the folds of the long cream colored skirt.

"It looks great, Sakura," Shirou assured her, wondering whether it would be a good thing to mention she looked rather like a parfait of vanilla ice cream covered in strawberry cream. It wasn't at all a bad impression, but when he worded it out it just sounded rather silly and he rather wondered if Sakura would take it badly.

"Oh, she's just darling," Lancer said, coming out of her own booth and hugging Sakura while her own blouse was only half buttoned up. "But I thought you needed help buttoning the back, didn't you call?"

"Oh, Tohsaka-san helped me," Sakura noted idly, flushing only a little bit.

"She did?" Lancer commented, looking a little serious and turning toward the changing booth that held the inquisitive magus. She straightened up and cupped her chin thoughtfully as she finished buttoning up the front of her blouse.

The Servant thought back to when the other girl's manner had changed on touching Lancer's hands. It had been clear then that Rin Tohsaka was a magus and had recognized Lancer as not human. It didn't say that she was anything other than a magus ascertaining the situation however.

She rather wished that she had a clearer memory of before. Instead, emotions and sensations ran clear, but faces, names and voices were fuzzy or distorted and events were confused, maybe even reduced to metaphor. Shirou and Sakura both felt familiar and comfortable, so she'd assumed they had been...important to her, but now Tohsaka felt similar.

Lancer supposed it had to be expected. Nothing could ever be easy. Still, she wondered what the magus had seen from Sakura and if it would be problematic.

"Oh well, I suppose no harm done," the Servant said with a sigh and a shrug. "How do I look?"

She finished buttoning the last tie and did a little twirl, causing the yellow skirt to spin around her. She ended with her arms wide in a pose Fujimura would have been proud of with the addition of her normal regal presentment. Her blouse was white and topped with a sort of half jacket in yellow on top of that.

"You look like your name," Rin noted as she stepped outside in her own outfit.

Once again, the rather girlish pink and brown outfit didn't seem to match Tohsaka's inherently domineering personality. It looked fine, but when her attitude came into play, it just made her seem silly. Despite himself, Shirou couldn't quite hold back a chuckle while Lancer was a bit more vocal.

"Oh it looks just adorable, now if you'd only smile and relax just a little."

Rin fumed irritably. "Oh just give me my normal clothes back."

"One moment," Lancer told her walking to one of the changing room.

Meanwhile, Rin glared at Shirou who decided to find somewhere else to look and Sakura turned her back, covering her mouth. "Now she's going to come out of the room half-naked or something."

"To be fair," Shirou said cautiously, taking a step back. "You did that three times."

"Three...?" Rin gasped. "I thought it was just twice."

"Uh, I think I did it at least once too," Sakura admitted.

"I guess it gets to be too much of a bother to make a big deal out of it every time," Shirou noted.

Rin's eyes widened and she jabbed a finger pointing toward Shirou. "Why...you...she!"

"Here you are Tohsaka-san," Lancer declared bringing out the magus's normal red blouse and black skirt.

"You!" Rin declared, pointing toward her.

"Me?" Lancer asked, eyes narrowing slightly as her body tensed.

"You're desensitizing us!" the magus accused.

"Oh, that," the blonde Servant noted, relaxing again and shrugging with a smile.

Shirou's own eyes widened as he understood what Rin was talking about now. "I thought you said that you hadn't started trying to seduce us."

Sakura gasped.

"I hadn't at the time," Lancer clarified. "Should I move on to the next stage of the campaign then?"

Sputtering, Rin snatched her clothes from the woman and disappeared once more into the changing room.

"Who is she supposed to be anyway?" the magus was muttering under her breath as she took off her blouse again. "Aphrodite, Ishtar, Venus? Benten? Those are all goddesses, where's a perverted human woman..." Rin paused and darted out of the room briefly. "Borgia? Bathory!?"

"Ah, Tohsaka-chan," Lancer commented pointing. "Was it necessary to undo the bra?"

Rin blinked. "Eh?" Then she noticed the frozen blushing looks on Sakura and Shirou as Lancer looked mildly embarrassed but appreciative. Looking down, Rin saw that she was, indeed flashing her bare breasts at everybody. "Gah!"

She disappeared back into the changing room, vowing to send a gandr into that woman's backside as soon as she had the opportunity and excuse. And Shirou too, for not looking away.

"Excuse me," a voice asked as one of the shopkeepers stepped into the backroom, "but do you plan on buying anything?"

* * *

_"Don't come down here," _Rin sent to her Servant as she sensed his presence. "_This woman is perverted but sharp. I'm reasonably certain that she knows I'm a magus and suspects I'm a Master already. Best not to confirm things or give her a look at your face."_

_"Who is the Master? We could end it right now," _Caster inquired. _"Is it the girl or the boy?"_

"_I can't be sure," _the magus returned. _"In any case, I doubt they're a threat right now. One enemy at a time."_

_"It would be a bad idea to let this opportunity pass_," Caster returned. _"I could kill them both right now and we'd be sure."_

_"I said hold back,"_ Rin insisted.

"So, Tohsaka, which outfit did you end up buying?" Shirou asked, surprising the girl.

She glanced over and hid her bag behind her back. "Oh, nothing, just a night shirt. Those two seem to have purchased half the store."

Shirou winced and nodded. He sincerely hoped that Ria wouldn't be upset over how much they had ended up spending. He tensed a bit as he picked up a new scent, similar to what he had grown used to from Ria all his life and Lancer now.

"I didn't get much," Sakura noted.

"Indeed," Lancer agreed, "I fear that it was mostly..." the woman trailed off as she looked across the street and felt her heart starting to pound fiercely as she found herself unable to stop focusing in that direction.

Lancer wasn't sure what it was, fear maybe, or anger. Whatever it was, her hands were starting to shake, her feet were rooted and she was vaguely aware of the taste of iron that came as she bit into her lip.

"L...Lily-san?" Sakura asked, nervously as she saw the trickle of blood slipping from the corner of the Servant's mouth.

"Are you all right?" Shirou asked as he followed the direction of her gaze across the street where a host club was starting to open for the night. A young woman with a cheerful and welcoming face was standing there, waving people into the club. She had bright blue hair and strangely large ears, but seemed quite attractive and harmless for all the oddity.

Rin had also looked across to the woman and narrowed her eyes, wondering what it was about the clearly unusual hostess that had attracted the Servant's undivided attention.

"_Rin! Take cover!" _Caster warned.

"Get down!" the magus shouted as she ducked behind a wall.

As Rin shouted, Lancer stepped forward, eyes scanning briefly for danger before focusing again on the blue-haired woman who had turned to look at all of them. As soon as the woman noticed that she was being watched the light-hearted appearance fled into a hard-eyed stare.

Sakura and Shirou themselves were somewhat slower to move, and thus they were still standing in place when a golden bolt streaked along the street, and all the lights failed in its wake. The entire area was sunk into a thick darkness as people started shouting and wondering what was going on.

Then there was a flash as what looked like an arrow collided with a bright circle in front of the blue-haired woman who was running up the street.

Lancer latched onto that image and surged forward, her armor manifesting around her as she grabbed her spear. With swift steps, she felt she was gaining ground on the woman when a last second impulse urged her to duck. Rolling out of the way, she felt the wind and heard the passage of another bolt passing through the night sky. A moment later she heard a cry as the arrow struck someone else.

"_Caster, is this you. I said don't attack!" _Rin insisted.

"_No, it's Archer," _her Servant informed her. "_South, maybe five miles. Should I retaliate?"_

"_Go!" _Rin returned.

And then light returned with a burst of roaring fire behind what appeared to Rin to be the heads of two dragons. The burst of fire set Lancer up in silhouette as the woman moved back to standing and leaped up, spear in hand, to clear the burst of flame and land somewhere in the darkness ahead.

Shirou heard the roars of the...dragons and the screams of people even as he heard Lancer's voice shouting.

"You! I know you!" the woman declared.

"Then you should get out of my way," came the soft, sibilant response.

Flame seared through the darkness again as a chariot drawn by the fire-breathing beasts slashed up the street, forcing Lily to dodge aside. Though she lashed out with the haft her her spear, striking at the knee of one of the dragons. The beasts stumbled before they could leave the ground and the chariot stalled for a moment.

Another arrow struck the into the enchanted air against Rider's outstretched hand, lighting up the scene as she directed a hand out toward Lancer and a host of bright lights lanced outward against the spear woman. Lancer braced herself with a grimace, but was surprised when someone darted out in front of her, rolling one of the circular display tables from the store into position between them and the lancing bolts of magic.

"Trace on! Reinforce!" Shirou's voice called out.

The table actually survived the first bolt, dented on the second but was obliterated by the third all in a count extending less than a second, but it was enough time for Lancer to grab Shirou and duck aside.

"Master! We talked about this," Lancer snapped in a narrow manner that seemed closer to Ria's tone than her normal voice.

"Aren't Servants not supposed to fight in front of a whole lot of people," Shirou asked.

"I believe that's what the first arrow that banished the light was meant to address," Lancer said. "Whoever this is. Either Servant or Master don't care about casualties so long as secrecy is maintained and we are killed."

* * *

Archer looked down below at the street, tracing the suns that were his targets. Two great suns, two large ones and one dim, but somehow dangerous sun. Too many suns. The two great suns were difficult targets, one repulsing his common arrows and the other dodging out of their way.

The man was tall and Asian in appearance. He had a full beard and was dressed in robes of many colors but dominated by red, white and blue. There was a serious, bitter expression to his face as he continued to sight down through the darkness brought about by his Tenth Sun at the sources of power and magic within.

"There's nothing else to do," he said with a whisper. "Before you scorch the land with your misbehavior, you must be brought down."

He took a deep breath and drew back on his great, Chinese bow, thinking about which of his arrows he should use here. Then he caught sight of something else streaming toward him from the direction of a third great sun. He leaped from his perch upon the roof as the projectile struck and exploded, showering him with concrete and other debris.

Grimacing, he darted for cover and looked towards the direction of his own attacker. This wasn't time for the First Sun, his attacker was not unaware. This renegade sun was striking back against him, searing the ground with heat and power just as in days long past. "Third Sun!"

The golden bolt ripped across the sky reaching for the position of his enemy. Seeing it coming, Caster held out his hand and casually declared his own counter. "Rho Aias."

The arrow struck the summoned shield. The arrow that had killed a renegade sun sliced through the layers, barely slowing down at all. Caster had barely more than a moment to overcharge the last layer and push aside the golden bolt which exploded behind the red-suited Servant in a brilliant display that coated everything around Caster in a withering heat. The Servant bore it with pain even as he watched a startled flock of pigeons burst spontaneously into flame.

Sharpening his eyes, Caster focused in on where Archer had gone, ascertained that there were no civilians present, and summoned another of his arsenal to launch as a broken phantasm.

* * *

Rider searched through the darkness as her dragons regained their feat and pulled the chariot aright again. Most people had taken cover once the sounds of combat and flashes of fire had started, but she knew Lancer was still out there somewhere. She needed to clear the area. Her night's feeding was already ruined by this accidental battle and she was embarrassed by the fact that she had allowed such a thing to occur.

Had she been summoned as Caster, she'd have been able to draw life from the city much easier from a distance and that would have given her more time to scry. Instead, she had to do things mostly manually.

Still, she had some benefits. She called out to dragons "Find the Magus!"

The chariot started pulling forward at speed as the dragons scented out the smells of magic. After a moment, she was aware of the figure of a young girl in front of her seemingly frozen in fear. The dragons started bearing down on her, pulling Rider along. Then they paused, taking in a long breath when a second form darted forward and tossed out something that erupted into a bright burst of light. The dragons reared up, roaring in shock as Rider shielded her eyes.

As she opened them, the forms of the two girls had pulled into the darkness again and the dragons started to follow, bringing the chariot along. They had turned in one direction and stopped as the distinct figure of the pole-carrier came out of the darkness.

"Rhongomyniad!" shouted the woman as she thrust the spear into the side of one of the two dragons.

Rider's eyes widened as the spear struck and it seemed to hit with the force of a falling star, crushing in the side of one of her great beasts even as it speared through the flesh and then tore back out.

The beast roared in pain as its mate lashed out with a claw which Lancer nimbly dodged out of the way. Whoever this Lancer was, they were not much concerned with the darkness. And now the dragons were turning after the Servant rather than persisting in chasing the Masters, as if this spear carrier were some sort of threat to their territory.

Caster hurriedly started casting her prana into the chariot and through that to the stricken dragon. She had little time to save the beast before her opponent struck the other the same way.

Instinctively, Rider's hand rose up and the dagger struck against the circular shield of force that had blocked the arrows. Instead of stopping the dagger, the shield wrapped the oncoming knife in a glittering aura that sharpened its edge and hastening it until it struck into the shoulder of Rider with a deeply burning pain as if the blade was trying devour her magecraft and her with it.

Reflexively, she tore the knife from her shoulders and tossed as far from her as she could. Hissing, she used her other arm to whip the reigns of her chariot and call out. "Argon Coin!"

She, her dragons and chariot were suddenly covered in a blazing nimbus of fire and light the path ahead of her was made clear. Lancer was charging forward again, spear held out as she yelled a battle-cry. The dragons surged forward, breathing out fire ahead of their path and claws and maws snapping out to strike at the charging knight.

Her charge faltered as she had to huddle against the flames and then she had to raise the spear to block against a swiping claw and then another, darting back again and again as the chariot pressed forward inexorably. The dragons' fury was nearly overwhelming as they focused all their newly invoked power on striking down this tiny form that felt like an enemy rather than the usual prey smell that came from these small things.

A feeling of magic from Rider's side drew her to haphazardly deflect the power tossed by one of those two magi girls that had escaped her earlier.

In front of her, Lancer tried to leap up to avoid the oncoming rush of the chariot and dragons, but was caught and slammed down underneath one of their paws. The dragon held her there as the other reared back its head, ready to unleash a breath of fire.

"Lancer!" a boys voice called out from the side.

The Princess of Knights gripped her spear and struggled to pull herself free of the trapping claw, but it didn't look like she was going to have time. And then something black slipped through and a dark sharp drew across the front of the dragon's chest. The creature shrieked, its fire spraying harmlessly into the air and revealing a blonde woman similar to Lancer bearing a black sword which slashed out again across the chest of the second dragon.

The second beast reared back, releasing Lancer who was immediately on her feet and stabbing the spear upward into the beast. Rider winced as the attempt to back up by the dragons rattled the chariot and thus her wound. She glanced ahead and watched as the black knight worked to slash at the limbs of the dragons keeping them from lashing out at the spear carrier as she stabbed outward.

"Return!" Grimacing. Rider, recalled the chariot itself and unleashed the dragons entirely. "Hunt the Magi!"

They wouldn't hold shape for long without the chariot. But this way they couldn't truly be killed, merely dissipated until she summoned them again. There was no need to lose the Argon Coin this early in the War, not just because she got boxed in by some sniper. The vehicle vanished into a golden fleece which she gathered up and darted away into the unnatural darkness.

Lancer caught a sight of her fleeing and started to follow, but the form of one of the dragons moved into her line and she dodged aside.

"Focus, Lancer!" Ria demanded as the two beasts now took to the air and split to different directions.

The black knight darted aside and leaped to the top of a street light before taking another jump to loom over the top of one of the dragons as she brought her sword downward, slicing into the beast's wings just as her feet touched its body and she followed its fall down to the ground.

Lancer snapped out of her distraction to follow the other dragon but cursed under her breath as it twisted out with purpose. Though she couldn't completely see it, she could hear it and feel the wind of its wings. She knew it had found a target and grimacing, Lancer paused to rear back her hand, judging her prana reserves.

Ahead of her, Rin and Sakura also felt the approach of the dragon and Rin scanned about before seeing the rough shape of a car ahead and dragging Sakura along to it. She ducked behind the vehicle shouting, "Close your eyes, Sakura!"

And then the world was full of fire and light coursing down at them.

"Hang on! Shirou's voice shouted as he pulled pulled open the door of the car they had taken shelter by and placed it between them and the oncoming fire. He reinforced it as thoroughly as he could while the dragon gushed out its effort in extinguishing the magi.

"Rhongomyniad!" Lancer shouted. Once again, the spear lashed outward crashing into and through the dragon, causing it to erupt into a cascade of fire and prana.

Elsewhere, another flash of fire showed where the second dragon was killed.

"Is everyone okay?" Taiga's voice demanded as she came up behind Shirou and Sakura, hand touching the car absently before yelping and pulling it back. "Hot!"

_"Archer has left the battlefield for now," _Caster told Rin. "_Do you still want me to hold back on attacking the two Masters with you?"_

"_Ye...yes," _Rin decided. "_It wouldn't be appropriate or wise to attack them now. This darkness could fade at any time."_

"We're fine," Shirou called out.

"We're leaving!" Ria declared, coming up to them in the darkness, she paused as she looked to Rin Tohsaka. "Get whatever you have and let's move."

The light was slowly starting to filter back on in the buildings around and Lancer moved to pick up her knife as it sparkled white in the fading darkness. The shopping bags that she could find came next, fortunately mostly in one place to the side. Around her, she saw the cast aside bodies of several people who hadn't managed to clear the streets in time.

"Tohsaka, do you..." Shirou started to say.

"I'll be fine getting to my own house, Emiya," she insisted, don't worry. "Worry about yourself and Sakura..."

Rin's voice trailed off as she stood up and started to look around, slowly Shirou did likewise saw the bodies scattered around and burned by the dragon's fire. As Rin stared wide-eyed, Shirou darted forward checking for signs of life.

"Some are still alive!" Shirou called out. "We can..."

"Leave it to the ambulances, Shirou," Ria ordered. "We need to leave!"

"But..."

"We saved them by ending the fight!" Ria insisted. "Now we need to save them by making sure there isn't another fight before they can get medical care! Girl. You're Tohsaka, right?"

"Y..yes," Rin said. "How do you know that?"

"I keep track of the magi families," the knight responded. "You can heal?"

"Of course I can," Rin insisted as she moved forward. "_Caster keep an eye out for other Servants coming."_

_"And try to see which way these go,"_ Caster reasoned simply.

"But I should..." Shirou started to say.

"Leave it to the Tohsaka, there's nothing you can do," the knight snapped. "Fujimura! Let's go."

"Listen to her, Emiya-kun," Rin barked.

Rin watched as the small blonde woman in the dark armor herded up Sakura and the others and pushed them to leave the area, but she had her own task. There were some here who she could save that would not survive when waiting for the ambulance.

* * *

Ria looked to where the humans were getting ready to sleep for the night and frowned deeply before she walked to where Lancer sat looking more serious than she had yet presented herself. The black knight angrily grabbed the woman under the shoulder and dragged her out of the building.

"What is it you require, Milady," Lancer asked as they came outside and Ria released her, pushing forward.

"Why isn't Rider dead?" the black knight demanded.

"Because she is a coward that ran into the night," Lancer supposed.

"She is a witch that you struck with Carnwennan," Ria snapped. "I saw it push through her shield as I was approaching. She should be annihilated. The only reason she wouldn't be is if you didn't fully invoke the Noble Phantasm."

"I meant to," Lancer said hollowly as she looked at the knife that was suddenly in her hand. "I wanted her to die, but...somehow...I couldn't. I could only bring myself to kill her dragons and wound her. I _knew _her. And I wanted her dead...but I couldn't..."

"Next time, you don't hesitate," Ria growled.

* * *

That night there would be dreams...

* * *

The Sword's power had been unlocked and its target had been obliterated, but it had cost. The swordswoman could feel her life drifting away from the effort of both resisting the command and using the sword. That was fine, after everything, she wanted to simply die. She didn't want to bring this experience back to her mind. Let the memories die with this Servant's body.

There was some shouting between the boy and the magus that had come to save her and she was barely cognizant of it. They had come to save her, when it was her task to save them. They should have simply left well enough alone and not risked themselves.

She was empty now. Her life and memories were worthless. She'd managed to revive them just enough to end the threat to her rescuers, but that was it. There was nothing left to rescue.

Then there was the first kiss and her emptiness was filled as her rescuers became her saviors and lovers all at once.

* * *

_Oh, just a note. The stats are really more along the lines of me tinkering. I'm not just arbitrarily assigning them and I'm listening to the comments on them. For one thing, the stats are incredibly vague and don't really have any hard or fast capabilities assigned. As such, simply using stats to determine the story doesn't really work. It's more along the lines of figuring out the awesome quotient.  
_

_As to this fight. Medea as Rider penned in rather than able to take to the air and taken by surprise (which completely annoys her) while setting up another party to suffer a gas leak. The use of the Argon Coin in the stuff I can access on Nasuverse is vague, so I mostly referred back to the old myths of Medea riding a chariot pulled by dragons._

_Also, one of my friends suggested I invite readers to guess at who Archer is.  
_


	4. Chapter 4

Shirou woke up early the next day as the sun was peaking out over the horizon. Sitting at the entrance to the old building, Ria was looking outward, clearly on guard. She generally wasn't up early if she wasn't "on campaign." He stood up and looked around, working out the kinks in his back.

"Morning, Shirou," the yellow-eyed woman said without turning around.

"Ah, morning Ria," Shirou responded as he started to walk...toward an empty corner of the dojo. He'd originally thought about cooking and getting something started for Sakura, but there was something decidedly missing as far managing that.

Namely cooking supplies and food.

"How did you sleep?" she asked pointedly, finally turning towards him. "Any dreams?"

He turned around from his pondering as to what chore to tackle and how to look at her. "Actually, I did have a strange dream."

"I thought you might," Ria noted. "Kiritsugu used to have dreams of my past while he was my Master."

"So, the woman in blue and white..." Shirou noted.

"What did you see?" she asked.

"If that was you..." Shirou said, looking embarrassed. Ria noted his flush and stood up sharply.

"That was temporary! The cursed old man's practical joke!" she protested sharply under her breath, glancing toward the sleeping people. "I am one hundred percent woman!"

"Ehh? What are you talking about?" Shirou asked.

Ria frowned for a moment, considered carefully and then coughed. "Nothing to be concerned about...But what did you see?"

"The..." he looked to Ria, clearly fearful of offending her.

"Shirou," Ria noted, stalking toward her and swinging her arms with purpose. "I will be more annoyed if you don't tell me what you saw than if you do tell me."

"You were being rescued," Shirou admitted.

Ria blinked, stopping. "I was being rescued?"

"That's what I know, if I'm right about it being you," he responded. "You had managed to defeat some enemies when someone came to rescue you and were dying. You wanted...to die. And..."

"And...?" Ria narrowed her eyes.

"Then I think you had sex with the guy and girl that came to find you," Shirou whispered. "And that...healed you."

Ria looked thoughtful, cupping her chin. "That wasn't me."

"But it looked a lot like you, only..." Shirou turned to where Lancer was lying against the wall, sleeping soundly. "Green eyes."

"Did you recognize anybody else?" Ria asked as she considered some of the talk from yesterday.

"Everything else was fuzzy," Shirou noted. "Why do you ask?"

"I think it likely Rider was among Lancer's enemies," she explained. "You might not be able to trust her judgment around that woman."

"You're just going to dismiss her out of hand?" Shirou asked in protest.

"Like it or not, Shirou, this is a war," Ria insisted. "You must think of us as weapons in your arsenal. And you must know the flaws of your weapons as well as you know their strengths if you're to best use them."

"But she's..."

"When the grail is destroyed, hopefully for good this time," Ria commented, "she will fade. As will the other servants."

"You didn't," he reminded her.

"Mine is not an existence I would wish on anyone," the woman snorted as she looked around. "Shirou, I've been wondering. Where is the food?"

"Food?" Shirou asked.

"While you were shopping," the woman noted. "All I could find was clothing."

The young man's eyes widened then as he considered the matter facing them: Ria Penn without the ability to devour a week's worth of food in the morning. The prospects were suddenly very bleak and he swallowed nervously.

"Actually," he noted. "We didn't really..."

Ria hummed, narrowed her eyes and turned back to face Shirou, watching him closely. "You didn't really...what?"

* * *

Illyasviel von Einzbern sighed as she walked through the empty house. She had so wanted to actually meet the boy that her father had left her behind for. Instead, she found no one home. Shaking her head she shrugged and started to walk out of the building. She took a trip through the kitchen's immensely well stocked pantry and picked up an apple as she hummed quietly to herself and skipped to the front of the door.

"_It's rather unfortunate that you had that run in with my brother's servants," _she noted to her servant. "_He must have decided to move to another place. I hate to think of my brother as cowardly."_

"_Beware making assumptions like that," _Saber warned her. "_It's best to observe for yourself the truth of matters."_

_"So you've said," _Illya responded a little impatiently. "_What I know is Kiri left and never came back."_

She stepped out of the building and started to walk to the front gate and blinked as someone else started to come into the property, stopping as he saw her. It was a young man, Japanese of course, with somewhat bluish hair and wearing a school uniform similar to her brother's.

"What's a little girl doing here?" he asked idly as if not really talking to her.

Illya took a bite out of her apple, demurely chewed and swallowed before speaking herself. "I'm visiting family and you?"

"I'm looking for my sister," the boy said. "One of my friends lives here and she usually stays around here."

"Wouldn't that make him _her_ friend?" Illya wondered casually.

The question seemed to infuriate the boy who immediately moved into a sneer that Illya simply did not like. Her answering expression probably looked somewhat more pouty than forbidding, which rather annoyed her.

"Whatever, brat," the boy responded. "Is anybody home?"

"Sadly no," Ilya responded with a shrug as she took another bite from her apple. "It was somewhat disappointing."

_"This is one of the missing students after the killing two nights ago," _her Servant noticed.

_"Hmm, is there a Servant nearby?" _she asked.

_"If there is, they have a way of concealing their presence,"_ Saber noted.

_"Then he's either alone or Assassin's Master," _the girl responded as she chewed her apple.

"Then how can I tell you're really visiting family?" the boy asked with a smirk. "You could just be a foreign thief or something."

"Hmph," Illya responded. "For that matter, I only have your word that you're here looking for your sister."

"Who are you anyway?" the boy asked.

"I'm Illyasviel von Einzbern," she responded. The boy flinched at her name, clearly he recognized it and she smirked at the recognition. "And you are?"

"Shinji Matou," he answered.

"Ah, does the Matou family still exist then?" Illya asked. "I thought it was just one old man."

"Tch, if you're an Einzbern," Shinji responded, "then you're hear for the Grail War."

"Oh, so you are a Master then?" the small girl commented. "I was wondering whether or not I should kill you."

"That's something a pint-sized brat out here alone shouldn't be saying," Shinji said confidently as he strode forward, sneering expectantly without even wondering why the girl was still calmly eating her apple.

"_Do you want me to do something Master?" _Saber asked casually.

"_Do you think you should? He's not very threatening," _Illya commented.

"_He's obviously thinking the same about you," _Saber reminded her.

"I don't like him," Illya noted out loud as she simply moved to walk around him, unconcerned. "Kill him and let's move on."

Shinji started to turn on where she walked past him negligently. "What do you think..."

He barely noticed the shadow materializing over him before something yanked him out of the way of Saber's sword. He was cognizant of long purple hair and Assassin's form as the Servant under his nominal command set him back on his feet wordlessly and produced a long pole ending in a crescent shaped blade.

The Matou boy smiled and dusted himself off as he looked toward Illyasviel with a return to his confidence as she glanced toward him and his Servant with a curious glance.

"Well," he said. "Things aren't so one-sided as you thought then. We'll see if your brute of a Saber can handle my beautiful Assassin."

Assassin grimaced and winced at the comment her Master had just made.

"You shouldn't be foolish," Illya warned calmly.

"Assassin! Kill that brute," Shinji commanded.

Instantly, the purple haired-woman darted forward, swinging her weapon with clear skill and power. Saber brusquely caught the hook of the blade with his own xiphos and deflected Assassin's strike to the side without having to shift his footing at all. Assassin narrowly avoided the return blow from the sword and, rolling to her feet, lashed out to draw a thin cut across Saber's chest, drawing a red line across.

_"_Huh?!" Illyasviel gasped. "Saber!" She whirled on Shinji angrily. "How did you hurt Saber?!"

_"That is a good performance, Illya,"_ her Servant told her telepathically in an amused tone that didn't match the shocked expression on his face. "_The damage is all superficial. I allowed it."_

Outloud he continued in a more pained tone, "This is nothing Master!"

"Maybe it would be best if you were to give up right now," Shinji said as he continued to stalk forward.

_"Why don't you simply annihilate her and be done with it?" _Illya asked curiously as she walked about, keeping an eye on Shinji's motions.

Shinji chuckled and stepped forward menacingly as the little girl backed away from him in a manner he took as being stoic and attempting to hide her fear.

"_At the moment, we're being watched," _Saber returned. _"It is best to put on somethin__g of a performance for our audience. Remember, when you're large, they'll assume you're slow and stupid..."_

_"And when you're small, they'll assume your scared and weak,"_ Illya finished._ "Fine, I'll handle the...what was the word that book used?"  
_

_"Squib."_

_"Ah, yes, that was it, tell me when, please," _Illya responded, before turning her attention back to Shinji completely and continuing the unintentional act she'd started by darting to the side and putting her back to a tree. "I...I don't know what sort of power your Assassin has, b..but it won't be enough."

Gathering himself up, Saber surged forward into an attack sequence that Assassin found herself avoiding with only a little difficulty and one near hit. She measured the frustrated expression on her enemy's body language with suspicion. Her cut had been shallow, too shallow to be anything of concern to the man she was fighting. For all the heaving of his chest and heavy breathing, he didn't smell of effort. Her opponent was baiting a trap.

An opening appeared and she took it, turning the offensive over to her. It was a fake of course, the opening and the way he let her take advantage of it. If they were fighting all out, he'd likely have overwhelmed her from the get go. He had some other game than just fighting her and she grimaced. A third party? So he was looking to defeat her while holding back.

That was fine with her. The only thing that she had to worry about being witnessed was something she wasn't intending on using anyway.

Momentarily, she took in the fight going on between her Master and Saber's. The little girl was dodging around a tree while her Master foolishly stalked after her as if she was nothing more than a little girl he had frightened. It was disgusting and what she had come to expect of the boy. The idiot still didn't realize that he had leaped them into a suicide fight.

If he died while she was obeying his order to take out this Servant, she'd be pleased. She'd break off and seek out Sakura then.

Assassin ducked aside at a swing that probably seemed wild to an outsider or commoner, but which had come close to cutting deep into her shoulder. She managed herself, trying to keep any hint that she'd noticed how close it had come from leaking out. If she was going to come out of this alive, she was going to have to keep Saber from realizing that she was on to his stratagem. The last thing she needed was for him to decide to cut off any plan of her own by just running her through. The follow up attack was too slow to catch her before she could leap out of the way and go back on the offensive and once again she found herself in another mockery of an offensive drive.

"You know," Shinji commented. "You could just give me your command seals and bow out of this war."

"N..no," Illya said. "I am an Einzbern. We're not going to lose this war this time!" Telepathically, she was decidedly less concerned. "_Saber, are we ready to kill this cretin yet?" _

"Then I guess I have to take care of you here then," the boy noted with a friendly note._  
_

_"In a moment, Illya, get somewhere that your actions can't be seen from any angle, I don't know where our audience is," _he responded casually as he physically leaned forward and breathing deeply as if he was tiring. "Stand still and die, woman!"

"I could say the same to you," Assassin responded with a smile. "Only one of us is bleeding here."

That should have been enough bravado to convince the man that she was fooled by the handful of scratches she'd been allowed to inflict on him. She reared back her sword and smiled viciously. This was it, her only chance of getting out of this alive. She could wound Saber and run as soon as the little girl killed the slimy Matou boy.

Shinji came around again a tree to see Illyasviel backing into a corner next to the wall as he glanced over to see Assassin moving into her own attack on the giant that appeared to him to be weary. Then turned back to the little girl and glared threateningly into her eyes. Which was when he felt his muscles all seize up and freeze in motion. In front of him, the little girl drew a small ritual dagger from inside her blouse and stabbed it up into his chest.

Elsewhere, Assassin charged forward and watched as Saber smiled at her and started lifting up to lunge out, still with held back skill. She started to duck and let herself fade out of view. Presence concealment wasn't really supposed to work this way, she was taking a huge gamble, but it was all she could do. Saber's strike passed over her head as she rolled under it and came up to her feet ready to swing the blade into the man's unwitting back. She was half way out of her roll when she caught actual sight of Saber and found him twisting about absurdly swift, that massive xiphos already coming down on her.

"He...knew," was all she thought just before the blade slashed into her body and sent her flying across the property.

Saber immediately, turned completely around, looking to where the body of his enemy collided with one of the walls and passed through it. By the time he reached the damage, his opponent had vanished though whether from being destroyed or fleeing he wasn't certain. He frowned at the thought that she might have run leaving her Master behind, but the boy did leave a rather bad taste in his mouth.

"She's gone," he called out.

"Hmm," Illya said, standing over Shinji as she started to wipe her knife clean. "She could find another Master then." She glanced down at the still breathing boy in front of her and back at her knife. "Well, before your Command Seals pass to the Church."

To Shinji's terror, she started to cut again.

* * *

"That appears to be the end for Matou," Caster said succinctly. "If this were night, I'd suggest a confrontation. But I doubt we could pull off such a subtle conflict."

"He got three innocents killed while he ran and hid," Rin stated coldly. "I'm not terribly sorry. I'm more disappointed that nothing got shown off that you could really see."

Caster looked at her watching down to the building they were looking at and wondered if that was truly what she was thinking. They had originally taken this perch to see what the Emiya household was up to after all. The fact that two other Masters were engaged in a confrontation with none of the people she wanted to see anywhere.

"It's almost lucky Berserker did so much damage to the school," she noted idly, changing the topic slightly. "We can try to follow them to where ever they go."

"This sounds like a good plan," Caster agreed.

Rin looked down to where Shinji was lying and probably bleeding to death. He was slime that had already gotten people killed. Still, he was Sakura's brother, and as she remembered they had gotten along well when Shinji had first returned to the family home.

"I need to do something first," she admitted. "Go on ahead and I'll follow up."

Caster turned to look at Rin carefully, considering that she seemed to be prioritizing lives higher than he remembered. She wasn't so foolish as to believe that she could save everyone, but she still went out of her way to save people that could be considered her enemies. He wondered if he should tell her what he knew about Shinji Matou and the Matou family in general.

No, it wasn't his concern. He just needed to bide his time for now.

"Be quick about it," Caster advised.

Rin nodded and moved for the stairwell beside the building. She moved quickly, but without using the ring Caster had provided her with. Using it now might threaten her own life, and if she was to make it to the Akasha, and make sure that the Grail didn't end up in the hands of anyone that corrupted its purpose, then she had to live and win this war.

By the time she reached Shinji, he was just barely alive and had lost a great deal of blood. It was actually amazing to her that he'd survived even the short minutes that it had taken for her to reach him. She immediately kneeled down and started to work about stopping the bleeding and encouraging the body to repair the damage as much as possible. She couldn't replace the arm, her family wasn't the best where such things were considered, but likely the boy's grandfather knew some way around such things.

"If you weren't Sakura's brother, I wouldn't be wasting my time," she whispered harshly at him, not particularly caring whether he was conscious or not. "But someone needs to watch out for her."

Standing up when she'd taken him out of the danger zone, Rin looked about the household wondering where everybody had gone. Some chores hadn't been done yet, and that was entirely unlike what she knew of Emiya from seeing the way he acted at school.

It also didn't match the small information she had about Ria Penn, his guardian. She was supposed to be a strict task master as regarded things like chores and duties. Not that Emiya ever apparently complained of that, but he was well known for being just as serious about such things and just preferred to take them on himself.

Rin had to reason that they hadn't come back home last night.

Despite the surroundings, her mind flashed to an image of Sakura, Emiya and Lancer in a love motel. She immediately shut that down. Regardless of what the next phase of Lancer's "campaign" was, the thought was ridiculous given there were two other people with them. Looking back toward the unconscious body of Shinji Matou, it was also rather inappropriate.

The magus needed to get back to business, Shinji might be waking up soon and she didn't want to deal with him or answer just why she'd chosen to save him. She'd really rather that he never knew who had saved his life and hopefully, he would evolve past his slimy current self.

* * *

"_No Command Seals," _Illya sighed as she walked away from where she had dumped the severed hand. "_Assassin must have died."_

_"You don't sound convinced," _Saber commented.

"_I don't feel any different," _Illya commented. "_Perhaps there's not enough weight to their souls for me to feel it."_

The casual way that the girl spoke of the mechanism which would eventually kill her was both sad and admirable. Each person killed in this war, by her or others, would merely hasten the process by filling her with the fallen souls until she ceased to function as a human being. Like him, she had been brought into existence strictly for this war and, barring a miracle, she would cease to exist with its end.

The difference was that Servants were a reflection of beings that transcended humanity. Their existence was merely a sojourn. For Illyasviel, this was her first and only life.

"_That possibility is unlikely," _Saber noted. _"You've felt the killings of th_e_ bystanders easily enough."_

"_I should have made sure before leaving," _the seemingly little girl sighed. "_But that seems to make no sense. If neither of them died, then where are his Command Seals?"_ She sighed and shook her head. "_Are we still being watched?"_

"_It is hard to tell," _Saber responded. She couldn't see him in his spirit form, but she imagined that he was cupping his chin. _"I would assume yes."_

_"It doesn't matter," _Ilya responded. "_The fields around the castle will let us know of any approach well in advance. May I ask something that concerns me?"_

_"You may," _Saber responded. _"You are, after all, my Master."_

_"What was that weapon? It looked like some sort of hook or scythe," _she commented.

_"It's called the Harpe," _Saber told her. _"It was used by my great-grandfather to slay the gorgon Medusa. It is a holy sword created to slay Immortals. The cuts will heal, but only at the rate of a normal person."_

_"You allowed yourself to be cut with that?" _Illya gasped turning in the direction she felt was the right one.

_"I allowed myself to be scratched," _he corrected. "_The injuries are nothing, but traces might remain over the next few days. A few scratches and cuts on a Servant implies that I had been very seriously injured at some point."_

_"You'd think invincibility would be more fearful," _Illya protested.

"_And an appearance of vulnerability makes the enemy reckless," _Saber responded.

"_It frequently occurs to me that you are rather more intelligent than your reputation gives you credit for," _the little Master noted.

_"Physical strength, no matter how great, gets you only so far, especially when your foes are Gods, Titans, demons and children of Gaia," _Saber reminded her. "_The best way for even a demigod to win such battles is to arrange for the enemy to limit themselves."_

* * *

Sakura gasped briefly as she felt a voice filter into the back of her mind for the first time in days. Shirou turned to look toward her at the sound. "Are you okay, Sakura?"

"Yes," she answered quickly and quietly. "I'm fine."

"Tch!" A sharp sound snapped ahead of them.

Her eyes flicked ahead to where a particular small woman in black clothing walked up and down the aisles of the supermarket selecting materials as Sakura and Shirou pushed two carts that were quickly filling with food. Behind them, Lancer had a third cart as she moved with the small convoy.

"Milady," the green-eyed Servant started. "I protest again that the mistake is my responsibility and I am quite willing to accept whatever punishment you think Sakura-chan and Shirou-kun might deserve."

Ria turned around to glare at other woman past Sakura and Shirou. "Your lascivious plans for these two have no bearing on their choices to go along with your decadence."

"Bu..."

"Tch!" Ria snapped, turning her glare on Shirou and causing him to quiet up.

"It's actually three right now," Lancer corrected Ria causing the other woman to turn back to looking at her.

"Do I want to know who the third is?" Ria asked.

"Well if was thinking of you, I'd have said it was four," the Servant responded. Ria snarled and flushed slightly.

"Penn-san, do you have a lo..."

"Tch!" Her eyes wide and brow furrowing wildly, Ria turned to look at Sakura and Shirou as she reminded them to be silent. Both students took a step backwards, swallowing.

Taiga came into the isle then noting the two near twins and the two quiet teenagers. "Big Sister, are you going to have enough money for this?"

"It will eat some savings," Ria admitted tightly, almost unwillingly calming down. "Were you able to locate the items?"

"I found the cookware, yes," Taiga said.

"Sakura," Ria instructed. "You may answer."

"Yes?" the purple-haired magus responded as soon as the woman finished speaking.

Lancer stepped away from her own cart for some reason, drawing a cursory glare from Ria as she did so.

"Go with Fujimura-sensei and pick out some pots and other cookware," the black knight instructed. "Remember a camp stove."

"Okay, Penn-san," Sakura agreed quietly.

It had been rare for Sakura to be on the receiving end of Ria's fury and even then it had only been brief. A glancing blow at best. Having the full force of the former Servant's ire directed at her was intimidating in a way that was new to her. The discipline the woman was enforcing was hardly the worst experience Sakura had ever had.

Granted, when Ria had woken them all up that morning, it had been volatile enough to make her think there was an attack coming, but that was still just physical danger. Ten years ago, she'd been given to the Matou family and her time there had started with being immersed in parasitic worms and hadn't gotten rapidly worse from that point on.

There was something about this relatively minor discipline that made her...willing to accept it. Strangely she felt as if she had a choice in accepting this punishment, which was something rather rare for her. Denying it would have consequences perhaps, but that didn't change that the consequences were hers to accept if she wanted to. What was intimidating was the fact that she was absolutely certain that Ria would follow through with those implied consequences.

The experience was almost as strange as when Rin went out of her way to save Sakura last night and then made sure to stay close. The other girl was supposed to be ignoring her and last night just didn't fit with the image she had of the sister that didn't exist. At least Penn-san's differing behavior was easily attributed to a particular source. She had no idea what had made Rin break her character last night and that was disturbing to Sakura.

It messed with her understanding of things.

Lancer returned then with a rather large cake in a plastic case. Ria turned to say something to the woman, saw the cake, grimaced and nodded reluctantly.

"Be quick," Ria instructed, "we want to be out of here as soon as can be."

"Right, Big Sister," Taiga noted cheerfully, draw Sakura and Shirou's attention briefly. The woman was being entirely too cheerful about someone else falling under Ria's tyrannical sights for once.

* * *

Waking up in the hospital had been unexpected for Bazett Fraga McRemitz to say the least. She'd never expected to wake up again once she'd been ambushed in the middle of her summoning. She must have gotten lucky and someone had found her and called an ambulance. Getting out of the public hospital had been easy enough, even weak after days spent unconscious.

She found herself right now squatting in an abandoned, rundown building and reading the paper to get a sense of what had been going on in the war based on the fragments that the public was reporting on. Her original plan had been to seek sanctuary from Kotomine Church, but that was impossible now.

The magus had arrived at the church to find nobody there and rather than wait in front portions of the church where her severed left arm would raise questions, she had decided to move down into the basement. It had seemed an ideal plan to remain out of sight of any potential Masters looking to finish her off, at least until she could recover completely and attempt to get back into the fight.

She hadn't counted on finding the piled bodies of sacrifices in the place she'd thought to find protection. Then it had become imperative to get out of church before she was found within it. Which is how she now found herself, alone, no Servant, just herself and the memory of the incredible failure of her summoning.

Bazett sighed and looked down. She'd let herself get too distracted with the ritual and the fact that any moment she'd be able to meet the subject of her life's fascination. To see him come to form in front of her, bearing the legendary spear, Gae Bolg. She'd let the idea of it erode her professionalism so thoroughly that the first hint she had of the attack was when she overwhelmed and her left hand cut from her body viciously.

Still in the midst of the summoning, her pain and outrage had seemed to flow into the ritual and twist her original intention. Instead of the grand and daring hero she had wanted, she watched as the ritual brought forth the frenzied, raging beast of Riastad. Then her consciousness had faded away as the icon she had sought to bring into this world spoke to the vaguely remembered man who had attacked her.

So now she was looking for any sort of clue as to what was happening as possible. There were the gas leaks of course, the school killing and the incident downtown last night. Meaning the first major conflict had already occurred. For her part, she was focused on the school killing for the sheer brutality and destructiveness of it. It seemed like something a Berserker would do, even if it couldn't have been the power of a true Riastrad in the hands of the originator of that technique.

"Why were you interested in that school," Bazett wondered aloud.

Barring anything else happening in the next few days, that's where she needed to start her attempt to get back into the game.


	5. Chapter 5

Rider hissed as she felt the edges of the mark that had remained after she'd healed the injury that knife had left her. She could forcefully heal it, the magecraft within that knife wasn't nearly as watered down as modern magecraft, but it still wasn't to her standard. However, that would use prana that she couldn't easily replace for mere vanity.

She'd known her prana collections were going to attract attention eventually, it was why she'd limited the extent that she'd drained her targets. Mostly, she drew off of the men that had come to her various jobs, leaving most assuming that they had simply drunk too much. Whoever was causing those gas-leaks was making trouble for her.

The woman wasn't sparing lives out of any sort of noble feeling. It was simply that she no longer had an interest in the war and was thus delaying her discovery as much as possible. That meant there would be no mysterious deaths at the temple she staying at and as few other mysterious events connected to her as possible. Unfortunately, it had been, at best a stalling tactic.

"Archer again. Plus Lancer and Saber this time. If I'm not mistaken," she considered to herself. Then she recalled catching the fleeting sound of explosions in the distance about the time that Archer stopped attacking them. "Probably a fourth as well. That Lancer seemed to have something personal against me, though she seemed confused about what and there was something...odd about the Saber."

"For now," she said to herself as she picked one of the physical outfits in her closet. "I have to prepare and plan."

She sighed and stepped out of her room, checking her uniform to make sure everything was in place. The hostess club was pretty much destroyed in the battle, so she was down one of her jobs. Which was fine with her, it was a distasteful, abusive place. Otherwise she wouldn't have been willing to act as the outdoor greeter the way she had.

"Isn't it a little early for you to be heading to work, Rider-san?" a voice asked, drawing her attention to a tall young man. "Perhaps you should spend another day resting. Surely it won't slow down your wedding preparations."

"Ryuudou-san," Rider responded with a slight smile. "I'm afraid you don't know my entire situation. Everyday I spend idle bleeds my resources."

"You could get your fiance to help you out," he suggested. "Certainly he wouldn't be opposed."

At this, Rider calculating glanced down, furrowing her eyebrows in a shy manner before flushing a bit. "He has already helped me as much as he can afford to. Thi...this is something that I need to handle before I can move forward."

Or rather, this was delaying how long it would take her to slide away.

"Well, I'll be looking forward to the day you meet your goal," Reikan responded giving her a slap on the good shoulder that unbalanced her while somehow not being painful. "If only to see the day when, the temple is freed of a woman's presence."

"Of course, Ryuudou-san," Rider grimaced as she recovered her balance.

He laughed before looking back down unsmiling and taking her in. "Seriously, be careful, the city has gotten dangerous the past weeks and it is quite some distance between here and your work. It would be shame for such a hard-working young woman like you to be lost to the chaos."

She tried to keep her answering smile free of any bitterness as she answered. "Well, it's Fate, isn't it? but I'll be careful, regardless."

That said, Rider picked up her backpack and started walking to her scooter. It was a wonderful purchase from her point of view, a very lady-like mode of transport indeed. Of course, it wasn't so fast or spacious as her chariot or one of those automobiles, but she enjoyed the image she presented while riding the little green vehicle. Even the helmet was rather elegant in her opinion.

She refused to say cute, at least where anybody could see her.

The engine revved up and she drove the vehicle out of the gate and down the hill toward the town. Reikan Ryuudou shook his head in quiet amazement. "That thing being gone from here would be a bonus as well. How does she drive it down the hill or the steps without damaging it?"

For her matter, Rider was trying to think through her various situations.

Should she ask to increase her hours at one of the two remaining jobs and risk drawing more eyes as the number of people incapacitated increases there. Or should she replace the lost hostess job with another one. It was part of why she was leaving so early, to have some time to scan through some places

Then, of course, there was the matter of Archer. This was his second time finding her and it looked like the other Servants weren't far behind him. She needed to break her reticence and make an offensive of her own. Something that conserved the prana she had as much as possible.

* * *

"We have a choice here, Shirou," Ria noted as they looked down on the ground where they had spread out a map of the city and the surrounding areas. "I know where your sister is likely based. The Einzbern family have a castle here."

She pointed to an area outside the town in the middle of the forest.

"Aside from Tohsaka-chan, that's the only location we have for a Master," Lancer agreed, nodding.

Taiga leaned over from where she was sitting and matched a glare with Ria towards Lancer as her manner of address implied just who her third target was. "Teenagers."

"What about the murders and gas leaks, are these them?" Shirou asked.

Ria nodded, dismissing Lancer for the moment. "These murders using the blade have been happening around this neighborhood. And the gas leaks have been occurring deeper into town. Near where we engaged Rider."

"It is such a greedy way to do things," Lancer noted sweetly with a thick layer of distaste. "Perhaps the witch is responsible."

"She was a greeter outside of a hostess bar," Sakura commented softly.

"Not a position that they would give to someone on their first night," Lancer added, tapping her chin, vaguely disappointed.

"So the choice is this," Ria commented. "We can approach Tohsaka and put forward our position in hopes of an alliance. We can approach your sister with the possibility that she is already hostile, or else being manipulated by her Servant to be so. Or we can take the resources we currently have and begin our own investigations."

"If we can get all the Servants to turn aside from the fight, what happens?" Shirou asks.

"Even if the war is not active, it is a ritual and will persist," Sakura responded.

"But without the Servants..." Shirou tried to say.

"It will just take longer," Ria explained. "Some of these Servants are killing to aid in their prana acquisition and each of those deaths will fill the Grail further. In the previous war, the Grail was overflowing by the time there were two Servants left due to the number of civilian casualties."

"Sakura-chan," Lancer noted. "Can you bring Assassin in on our side?"

Sakura flinched momentarily before looking around. "Maybe. But...she's hurt badly."

Ria looked up at that and turned toward Sakura. "Since when?"

"Yesterday, while we were shopping," Sakura commented. "Shi...her Master sent her against Saber and his Master."

"Your brother then?" the black knight said, unsurprised.

"You could tell us where she is and we could bring her here," Shirou suggested.

Sakura shook her head. "She won't tell me. She doesn't want me to expose myself."

"A gallant Servant was summoned as Assassin this time," Lancer commented approvingly. "I'd be interested in meeting her."

"Of course you would," Taiga commented.

"Actually, I share this sentiment," Ria agreed reluctantly.

"We could go to her instead of Sakura," Shirou suggested.

"Best not to," Lancer said with a sigh. "She's a Servant, she'll heal without aid."

"We should talk to Tohsaka-san first then," the young Master said after a moment, not noticing the odd way that Sakura tensed at the decision.

* * *

Rin frowned as she walked through the building, as she walked through the building. The victims, both living and dead had both been taken out the previous night. Currently the place was supposed to be locked down before the repair crews looked it over. It hadn't really been that difficult to get in.

"Air conditioners were overloaded everywhere in the building," Caster noted as he appeared at her side. "Paint has literally stripped off the walls in places. Anything glass is shattered and much of the electronics has also failed."

"And when you were in the middle of the paramedics last night, he heard they were all dehydrated," Rin commented. "Everything points to the Servant using great heat to assault these people and take their life force. Is this what Archer's arrow did?"

Caster shook his head. "The heat of that blast would have set this place ablaze. This is more like the area was subjected to the harshest heat of a burning desert for a period of months. However, I don't doubt that its the same Servant. Do you have the same thought as to his identity?"

"There aren't many others that fit the bill, Houyi, the Divine Archer," Rin grimaced. "And if so, we're facing a legitimate god."

"One that was condemned to mortality," Caster noted.

"By the sounds of it, he never lost any real strength from the banishment," the magus countered.

"On top of everything, he will have an increase in his power here in Asia," her Servant reasoned.

"At least its Japan and not China," Rin muttered as she thought things through. "We've encountered or witnessed Berserker, Archer, Lancer, Saber, Rider and Assassin at this point. And one anomaly."

"The black knight that fought beside Lancer," Caster agreed. "You said that she is some sort of guardian for the Emiya boy?"

"I've never been close enough to sense whether she is human or not, but given her performance at the last battle," Rin noted tapping her chin. "I'd be surprised to find that she's not some sort of familiar. Where's the epicenter?"

"One floor up," Caster indicated. He walked to the wall and broken windows before pointing out toward the city. "I believe I have the vector of his shot pretty well estimated."

"Maybe we'll have enough with the rest to find him," Rin commented, as she turned to leave the building. "Or at least something to aim a familiar at."

* * *

Rider smiled as another customer came up to her bar. He casually ordered a beer as he turned to harass one of the women already sitting there. The ancient witch nodded at the order, reached for a glass and turned to the tap. As she did so, her fingers twisted and a silent string of words left her mouth. A moment later she placed the drink in front of the all too forward customer and turned back to her work. The trickle of life force lasted for fifteen minutes before the young man collapsed from "one too many" and had to be hauled out to a taxi.

"Tsk," the other bartender noted. "If you can't hold a simple drink what use is it to come to a bar looking for a date."

Rider nodded with a sigh. "That's certainly true, Tanaka-san."

One of the waitresses came up to the bar and read from her pad. "I need these drinks for table number three."

"I'll get that for you Ebi-chan," Tanaka noted.

The blue-haired Servant glanced toward the table in question and saw a young woman sitting with a middle-aged man. It didn't even take magecraft for her to identify him as a man running around on his wife going by his nervous manner. She prepared a drink for one of the bar customers and then waited as the other bartender fixed the drinks.

"I'll get that to the tray," she said in a helpful tone of voice, taking the one of the drinks as Tanaka finished it.

"Thanks for that, Rider-san," the other bartender noted as he moved to preparing the second drink.

"It's entirely my pleasure," she responded cheerily, taking the second drink from him and moving it to the tray for the waitress.

"Thanks," the waitress noted as she lifted up the tray and moved off to deliver the enchanted drinks.

Rider's smile took a slight sadistic bent as she imagined that, at the very least, her flavoring would leave the two incapable of the act of adultery for the night. She went back to her task and moved up the bar, a surreptitious motion caught her eye and the smile vanished slightly as she watched a hand slip something into the drink of the woman next to him.

A few steps, carrying a towel, brought her within reach of both the woman's and the man's glasses and she slipped something slightly more permanent into the would be rapist's drink. She paused to wonder what he might be thinking about come this time tomorrow after the stroke left him somewhat less capable than he was now.

As she turned back to her task, one of the other waitresses came up to get an order from her. "Rider, you should relax a little. If you keep up this pace, you'll be worn out by the time the sun sets, much less the rush."

"Oh, I'll be fine," Rider protested. "Somehow, this job just seems to energize me."

"She's pretty popular," Tanaka noted. "But she does seem to handle it."

"Oh, right, Elf-chan!" the waitress declared cheerfully drawing a wince from Rider as the nickname that had started spreading through the bar was repeated. "I knew right away who that was talking about."

The door to the front opened and Rider's eyes were drawn to it bringing something that was probably the height of her day. The thought of giving the annoying woman a couple of days of sick leave fled her mind as she saw the tall and somber form of her Master cutting through the crowds.

"Ahh, the fiance is here," the waitress noted with a smile. "Well, I'll be back to work."

That said, the woman disappeared out into the crowd. Rider frowned and turned back to Tanaka. "Do you mind if I take a few minutes?"

"Go ahead," the other bartender noted with a smile.

Nodding, Rider smiled and walked over to meet Souichirou. She caught up his hand gently and spoke with a cheery, loving tone, "Kuzuki-kun, what are you doing here?"

"I had errands in the area," he told her as the woman led them to a back corner for some privacy. As soon as the numbers around them were lessened, he leaned in to whisper. "Your spell worked to raise my senses. The bar is being watched. The tower to the south."

Rider grimaced as she sat down. "We are a target then. I was hoping that Archer found me a second time by accident. Kuzuki-kun, did you find his Master?"

"If I had, I'd have already dealt with it," he noted.

"I suppose you would have," Rider agreed. "Kuzuki-kun. You could have called for me on the telephone rather than risking yourself by coming into this place."

"As you said, the other Masters are looking for magi and Servants," he reminded her. "Someone like myself is not on their radar."

"It was still a risk," she protested. "You shouldn't risk yourself so."

"It is best to focus on the situation at hand," he reminded her, acquiring a sigh in response. "Will you be able to leave unseen?"

"It shouldn't be difficult," she commented. "Tonight we turn the tables on Archer."

"Do you have enough reserves to manage it?" he asked.

"I can handle one ambush," she noted.

* * *

Shirou stood at the edge of the Tohsaka land immersed in the familiar and overwhelming scent of iron, ash and glass flowing out from the gates. The two blonde women beside him were staring out into the space looking fairly cautious. Tohsaka's house had always had something of a lonely and empty air about it. If Tohsaka herself hadn't been so popular among the students, then it was likely there would have been stories about it being haunted.

He stood there, looking out and slowly as he watched, it was like he was seeing the house itself fade away to be replaced by a dry and dusky hill. He was starting to see glints of steel and the vague form of a figure slumped at the top before a voice pulled him out of his reverie and there was just the Tohsaka mansion standing there.

"There are some forbidding defenses here," Ria noted.

"You can feel it too?" Shirou asked.

"You're a magus, Shirou-kun, however limited," Lancer reminded him. "_You_ can likely feel it. For her and myself, it's simple instinct, unless I'm mistaken about you, Milady."

"I'm the same," Ria confirmed. "What do you perceive?"

"Iron, ash...swords and blood," he said seriously. "It's...strange."

"Strange how?" the dark-clothed woman asked.

"Like it's not something new," Shirou said with a shrug. "Anyway, she's not here."

"Your school is still closed for repairs," Ria said. "Likely she's out tracking an enemy herself. We should leave a message and set a meeting."

"It would be a bad thing for Tohsaka-chan to assume we're here to fight her when she comes home," Lancer agreed. "Hold a moment..."

They all turned to watch Rin, looking as if she was hanging off of someone, come down out of the sky to land in front of her house and stare out at the lot of them imperiously as a man in red and black materialized standing behind her.

"What may I ask is the reason for this visit, Emiya-kun?" she asked. "Certainly, you're not so foolish as to attack me here?"

"No," Shirou responded. "We came to talk."

"Talk?" Rin responded as her Servant snorted. "Let me guess, you want to propose an alliance. I'd heard you were naive, Emiya, but this is beyond belief. Are you two supporting this?"

"Actually, yes," Lancer admitted. Her pose seemed lax and casual, but the muscles were tense and ready to spring into action. Beside her, Ria hadn't yet materialized her black sword, but she still stood in a much more obvious stance. The black knight always made her moderately uncomfortable, but for now her attention was on the white-haired man in the red clothes standing behind Tohsaka.

"Then this is either the most absurd bunch of idealists I've ever heard of, or else you're fools for thinking I would be taken in by such a strategy," Tohsaka declared harshly. "There are no alliances in this war."

"Not strictly true," Ria commented. "In the Fourth War, the Grail War was called to a temporary truce in order to remove a rogue Servant that was drawing attention by kidnapping children."

The Tohsaka magus blinked, attitude shaken briefly before she drew herself back together and she considered momentarily. "You're speaking of Archer, I assume. Even assuming we align for dealing with him. There can still only be one winner to this conflict."

"Also incorrect," Ria noted. "There are _no _winners to this conflict."

Rin blinked and narrowed her eyes in consideration. "What are you talking about?"

"I am the Servant who _won_ the last war," the bitterness and distaste in the woman's voice was clear.

"Wh...what, that's impossible!" the magus declared. "Without the Grail to support you, you'd have faded long ago. You'd need someone with a tremendous number of magic circuits to remain. I could do it if I gave up most of my prana, but who is your Master."

"Dead, Five years," Ria said, not mentioning the residual contract that had awakened when Shirou had made his summoning. That was odd given the fact that she had gone five years without needing a constant source of prana, and she hadn't felt too much different with the contract. If anything it had felt more like an extra drain on top of the curse, minor, but there.

"Incarnation," Caster said. "Was that your wish then?"

"Far from it," the knight responded, glaring at the white-haired man.

"Tohsaka-chan, we're giving you all the cards here," Lancer commented, idly. "Even coming to meet you here with both of us in the open."

"_I'll remind you that we saw the Einzbern Master 'visiting family' at Emiya's house," _Caster commented to Rin, causing her to slowly calm down and consider the situation.

"We'll hear you out," Rin said slowly, before giving an inviting gesture. "Inside."

"All right," Shirou said stepping forward without a moment's hesitation.

Lancer blinked, hesitating in surprise before trying to make a move at stopping him. Ria sighed in resignation, somehow echoing Caster's sentiment. As for Rin...her eyes goggled.

"Wh...what are you doing?!" she demanded with a near shriek.

"You just invited us in," Shirou reminded her, voice somewhat distant suddenly as the feelings he'd had at the edge returned if increasing clarity and force. He almost felt something coherent when Rin's strident tones followed.

"You're supposed to negotiate terms first!" the magus protested after smacking her palm to her face. "Y...you just walked into a multi-layered bounded field set up by my family for generations and enhanced by a Servant! What are you thinking!? Don't you have any idea what a magus can do to you in these circumstances?!"

"He does," Ria assured Rin wearily as the former Servant rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"We actually discussed this subject yesterday," Lancer added with a sigh.

As the exchange occurred, Rin huffed irritably and walked, marched rather, up to where Shirou stood as clinched her fist. "Then are you just stupid!?"

"You could have attacked us the other night," Shirou noted casually, "or even just run away and left us to fend for ourselves. You're also curious what we have to say, if anything you'll wait until after hearing us out. Besides," and he remembered seeing her cover for Sakura with her own body and continued softly, "you're a good person who puts others before themselves. You probably hate the idea of this war as much as I do."

Rin flushed slightly and turned aside, holding her shoulders tightly. "I am a magus, Emiya-kun, for all you know every word I say is a lie."

"I trust you, Tohsaka," Shirou responded simply.

"Let's get this over with," Rin muttered irritably, entirely unlike a magus who now had a potential enemy or prey completely within the palm of her hand.

Caster stood watching the entire thing carefully and measuring the circumstances. He could easily slay Shirou right now, but there was a chance of either of Shirou's Servants preventing the death blow, and that's all Rin would need to enact a command seal. Beyond that, he had to admit to some curiosity himself. Things were not occurring as he remembered them.

Ria passed into the bounded field to stand beside Shirou next, following him as he passed the fuming Rin. Behind both of them came Lancer giving a rueful shake of her head and shrugging at Rin as the spear-carrier passed the magus.

That gesture immediately put Rin on guard in another way as she recalled the Servant's comment about moving on to the "next stage of the campaign." She would have to be on the look out for any more of the woman's attempts to sway her mind with promises of illicit pleasure.

She rarely cursed the fates that had taken her family from her, it was part of being magi, but currently she was cursing the fate that had left her a mostly unsupervised teenager growing up. The result being that she had easy access to certain tomes and had thus acquired a very firm grounding in tantric rituals, purely for scholarly reasons of course, just meant that she had an entire gallery of thoughts to choose between. And the less said about those Egyptian rituals that were made more efficient by a blood connection the better. Or the ones that worked especially well with someone of a noble heart.

Truly cursed texts. What was once read and seen could never be forgotten.

Rin slowly followed her guests into her house, and it had nothing to do with wanting time to get the blood out of her cheeks and wipe her nose.

Behind her the sun started to set.

* * *

Archer looked down from his perch at the place the sun he was targeting was hiding. Unlike last time, she was not standing outside where he could take a shot at her easily. He supposed that he could launch a sun against the building but then his enemy might simply vanish in the chaos the way she had escaped him twice before.

"_You've slain this one's Master already haven't you?"_ the voice of his Master asked. "_What is she still doing prowling around. Rider doesn't have an Independent Action trait."_

_"She is a magus,"_ Archer reminded his Master. _"Her reserves of prana are likely impressive."_

"_She would have to be hunting constantly to stay barely active," _she responded. "_And yet she battled with two other Servants not too long ago. She has a Master."_

_"Barring the magi she battled before, I have seen her in the presence of no other of power," _he reminded her. _"Is it possible for one with no magecraft to form a contract?"_

_"It's apparently happened before,"_ the woman in his head responded.

Suddenly, the mass of power below vanished from Archer's sight and he stood up, bow at his side, in surprise. Turning about, he saw her coming down from the roof of the next building over. The two dragons tore through the glass and steel of the outer building as if it were paper. Their claws and fire lashed out at the red, white and blue clothed Archer forcing him backward as he brought up his bow to release an arrow.

"Do you really think it's going to be that easy?" the woman behind the chariot's reins asked as she whipped the dragons onward, a soft smile on the part of her face not concealed by her hood.

The bolt released from the bow struck a purplish shield and shattered before it could touch one of the dragons.

"I have to thank you for killing my Master, he was a fool that deserved an ignominious death," Rider commented. "But that doesn't mean that I'll let you continue to have your way."

"I'm here for something beyond my desires," Archer responded as he rolled under one of the claw swipes and and fired another arrow into the shield surrounding the dragon.

"_Break off contact!" _his Master declared.

"_There is no need," _Archer responded calmly.

"_You can't use the suns if she stays so close to you!" _came the protest.

"_It is not important."_

Rider expertly directed her dragons to press her prey, chasing him through the cramped building as they tore through ceilings and walls pursuing and hounding the man. Each of his arrows seemed to merely break on whatever enchantment the dragons carried. Still, he did not seem at all concerned as the beasts seemed to refuse to leave him any space.

The building collapsed in the wake of their battle as debris fell down into street below and progressively cut down the number of places that Archer could flee to. Even more, however, the changes in the battlefield were slowing down and distracting the dragons. Rider could tell as the man's actions became progressively less hurried. Despite herself, she felt a trace of sweat roll down her forehead. After all, her bloodline included Helios, and she was running straight at a killer of suns.

Rider kept her smile on her face as she risked a little bit more prana use. Archer's attention was on her and her dragons. Perhaps he wouldn't see the light forming behind him into a lance. He was pulling back on his bow, aiming between the two dragons directly toward her. Perhaps he'd already reasoned that she didn't have the prana to shield both herself and the dragons, or perhaps he was just testing. Whatever the case, it was keeping his attention focused forward.

Her lance lashed outward as Archer's fingers started to release the string. It was going to be clo...

...and the white lance sheered through empty space as Archer vanished away.

"Damn!" Rider growled as she pushed her dragons and chariot out through the wall again and into the night.

And they had wasted a Command Seal and more prana for this ambush. At least she still had fifteen minutes to get back to the bar and make her excuses before leaving, probably forever since Archer knew about this one.

* * *

Dozens of miles away, Archer whirled to face his Master, fury on his face.

"I had her!" he shouted. "She was mine!"

"I couldn't take the chance that she had something up her sleeve," his Master, a tall and narrow looking blonde woman. "As you told them, we have a greater calling before us. Best to proceed cautiously."

"If you ever want to claim the name of your father's blood, Reyleith," Archer snapped. "You will let me do my task without interference and not waste Command Seals on such foolishness."

* * *

"Corrupted," Rin summarized with a grimace. "If your Master told the Einzbern then why..."

"The ritual is still created with pieces of the third magic," Caster commented. "The Einzbern's purpose is one of the few that can still be achieved going by their description."

Rin deflated and nodded. "You're right, of course."

"What do you mean?" Shirou asked, drawing his eyes away from the swords on the walls.

"Milady Black Knight is the proof that the concept works," Lancer said with a shrug.

"The Third Magic is the Manifestation of the Soul," Rin explained. "True immortality and resurrection. Gaia dislikes the very existence of Servants. It's constantly seeking to erase them from existence. And yet your guardian has remained in this world five years without having to either drain the lives of others or else draw prana from someone else. The world is not seeking to erase her it seems."

"There was more than the Grail at work in this case," Ria clarified.

"They wouldn't care, though the fact that you're here would imply that they aren't aware that you survived the Grail War," the magus commented.

"But completing the Grail could potentially kill most of the life on Earth," Shirou commented.

"The Einzbern likely wouldn't care," Ria told him.

Shirou blinked at the callousness of that statement and the casual way that Ria stated it. Slowly, the walls and furniture around them seemed to start to fade out of his view, leaving them speaking in a field of eternal swords that only he seemed to be able to see.

"Wasn't speaking to the Einzbern Master of Saber your next step?" Rin asked dryly. She still grimaced at just how...lax Shirou was with such plans and ideas.

"I have to at least try," Shirou responded.

"You really are an idiot," Tohsaka commented. "You realize that you've given me more than enough information to ruin you. If I give one hint that you want to destroy the Grail to the other Masters, then they won't hesitate to unite against you, possibly more than just that."

"Yeah, will I guess that's your choice," Shirou answered, "but I told you, I trust you."

"Why?" Rin demanded. "We barely know each other."

"I decided to," the tall young man noted.

"You deci..." Rin shook her head and tried to process the statement. The attempt to comprehend what for her was rather alien logic was practically visible on her face. "I'll have to look into this. How do you want to get into contact over this?"

"Newspaper ads," Ria suggested. "Assuming you don't trace us to where we're staying."

"Fine," Tohsaka responded with a sigh. "Emiya-kun, you are a headache. I'll show you out. Caster?"

"After you, Rin," the white-haired man noted.

Her three guests started to file out, Lancer lingering behind as she watched Caster. Rin broke from her headache long enough to notice Lancer's gaze lingering on her Servant and narrowed her eyes. Briefly she wondered what the source of the sudden indignation she was feeling was, but regardless, she decided on a course of action.

"Emiya-kun," Rin commented. "Do you mind if I have a private word with your Servant?"

Ria and Shirou exchanged a look and then turned toward Lancer, who looked back at them innocently. "I don't mind speaking to Tohsaka-chan in private."

"Caster can fill her place for the moment," Rin suggested.

The white-haired man turned to look at Rin curiously even as Lancer's expression faded slightly and looked toward Caster. It wasn't the same sort of look she thought she'd seen before. It was instead more like caution. Which was comfortingly more in keeping with what Rin would expect of a Servant.

"Be careful," the black-dressed blonde noted.

"I'm not going to try to kill your Servant on my own," Rin protested.

Lancer waited for the others to walk further down the road before turning toward Rin. "What did you want to ask, Tohsaka-chan?"

Rin blinked and seemed flustered for a moment before she settled on something. "Just what is the next stage of your 'campaign' anyway? You haven't done one thing since you got here, and I didn't see you making any move on Shirou eit..."

The magus stopped as Lancer's face was suddenly a mirror two inches from her own as the magus found herself leaning against the outer wall of her property. The green eyes glittered and the face smiled broadly as she whispered. "There's a rule to that, Tohsaka-chan. I can't tell you...but I can show you if you want."

"Sh...show me?" she responded hesitantly.

"All right," Lancer responded cheerfully.

And then her lips covered Rin's before the magus could say anything else.

* * *

"Tell me, Shirou," Caster asked as he found himself alone with Shirou and the black knight. "What sort of person would say you were?"

Ria turned to look at the white-haired Servant, watching him narrowly.

"I'm nobody special," Shirou responded.

Somehow, he felt that the otherworldly nature of Tohsaka's mansion hadn't been left behind. Even if he couldn't actually see the hill or the blades anymore, it was as if they were still around and all he had to do was look in the right direction at the right time in order to see the blades that had followed him from Tohsaka's.

He wondered briefly if it was the presence of Caster, but that felt like only a part of the truth. It strangely felt as if the blades had always been there in someway.

"And yet you're set to be a hero," Caster noted.

"I don't have much choice," the tall young man noted. "It isn't like there's much I can do about this when the path is being laid by someone else."

"You could have always run," the white haired man commented.

Ria grimaced as that was exactly what she had wanted to do until Shirou was chosen by the Grail.

"Even if I could, people would die," Shirou answered.

"Still, as I've heard, this is what you've always wanted," Caster noted. "To be a hero."

"And where did you hear about that?" Ria asked suspiciously.

"It's not that deep a secret," the Servant commented. "What's your answer?"

"I'll accept that curse if that's what I need to do to save everyone," Shirou answered, glancing between Ria and Caster.

"You can't save everyone," Caster protested.

"I'd rather fail in the attempt than the decision," Shirou returned.

Caster narrowed his eyes, that was rather a more sophisticated a statement than he was expecting. As was the reference of being a hero being a curse. He glanced toward the corrupted Saber suspiciously.

"Caster, I believe that I am enough until Lancer catches up," Ria said grimly. "Perhaps you should go back to Tohsaka."

"Perhaps I should," Caster agreed and then he grimaced. "Actually, I know I should."

* * *

The black haired magus felt herself freeze up as a shiver went down her spine. The kiss was surprisingly chaste. Or it would have been if Rin hadn't been about to say something. As it was, Lancer's own eyes popped in surprise as Rin's tongue slipped accidentally over the Servant's lips.

For a brief moment, Rin thought that Lancer would take it as a further invitation, instead the blonde pulled back and simply patted her cheek. "Tsk, Tohsaka-chan. We're not far up the campaign yet," and then she kissed Rin on the cheek and stepped away. "Now, if Sakura or Shirou ask about this, you know the rules right?"

Rin shook her head, closed her eyes and grimaced. "Wait, are you trying to recruit me to help you in your seduction of them now?"

"Exactly, so, you know the rules," Lancer commented. "No telling, just showing, a little bit of a kiss."

The magus flushed, though she wasn't entirely sure whether from anger, embarrassment or something else. "I'm not going to be your sidekick!"

"If there's nothing else, then, Tohsaka-chan," Lancer noted. "I'll see you for the next siege."

"You're not seducing me," Rin protested shrilly as the Servant vanished down the road. "Damn it, Lancer is as frustrating as Emiya!"

Regardless, she needed to talk to someone about what she'd heard. Fortunately, she had her own connections from the Fourth War to talk to.

* * *

_I'm aware of the notes on the Argon Coin saying Medea couldn't summon the dragon, btw. However, since the Argon Coin was never used I'm defaulting to the actual myths that have Medea riding a chariot pulled by dragons in some versions of both Jason's and Theseus's stories._

_I rather think that Archer was going to win that fight, btw. Also, I'm uncertain whether or not Kuzuki actually had Command Seals. I'm writing as if he did regardless. Rider's magic is subdued due to prana limits. Someone suggested she could use the summoned dragons as a prana source. 4th War Caster's Noble Phantasm was essentially a prana battery so there is precedent. However, I rather expect that that is the main reason that she calls the Argon Coin, that it can give her enough prana to fight without heavily drawing on her personal stores too badly. But I'm not writing it as nearly endless prana._


	6. Chapter 6

Sakura worked at chopping vegetables as Taiga swept the dojo floor. The activity seemed rather uncharacteristic of the normally lazy woman, and was somewhat distracting. Looking back at the woman and wondering what was driving her to be so tidy and hardworking all of a sudden kept her mind occupied as it wandered. Then she turned back to the cooking and focused on cutting the vegetables in front of her and planning the meal for when Shirou, Lancer and Penn-san returned from seeing Rin Tohsaka.

Last night she'd dreamed of exile on a desolate rock as a party of men came from leagues away seeking to kill the girls that eked out a wretched existence in their exile. She'd dreamed of the youngest, who seemed the oldest, killing and devouring these savage, gods-maddened men that came to seek them out. She witnessed the growing bitterness and rage within that woman's heart. Someone else might have been horrified or disgusted by the images, but Sakura only sympathized with the other woman. She hadn't lived long, but she understood the rage and part of her was envious that she had never been able to express it.

_"What does a person taste like?" _Sakura wondered.

"_The men I devoured were all muscle and bitter vile," _Assassin answered. "_It is an acquired taste."_

_"The stories say you devoured your sisters," _the magus responded quietly.

There was a silence for a time and Sakura was aware of another whispering in the back of her thoughts as she waited. When Assassin finally responded it was with deep regret. _"I wish I had not done so."_

_"Why would you be sorry? I saw how they treated you," _Sakura returned. Her thoughts were harsh even as she hummed quietly and pleasantly, the knife cutting evenly. _"They were cruel. Even as you protected them."_

_"You haven't dreamed everything yet, Sakura," _the Servant responded quickly. "_Those are my memories. __You won't see the truth until I did."__  
_

_"How are you feeling?" _Sakura asked, changing the topic.

"_I can take some action," _Assassin noted.

"_Can you safely watch Rin Tohsaka?" _Sakura asked, emphasizing the word safely.

"_That shouldn't be a problem," _Assassin responded.

"_Safely?" _Sakura repeated.

"_Yes, I can safely watch Tohsaka," _the woman assured her Master. _"__If you ask me, I will locate and track her movements now."_

_"Please do it,"_ Sakura requested hesitantly, trying to ignore the faint whispering in the back of her awareness.

"_I am on my way," _Assassin reported.

"Ahh, Sakura-Chan," Taiga called. "How is the food coming?"

"Oh," Sakura said, turning around with a friendly smile, "it's coming along just fine. I'll have it ready by the time everyone gets back."

"Great, I can hardly wait," the teacher responded cheerfully before turning back to her task.

"Fujimura-sensei, might I ask..." she paused. "Do you...like Penn-san?"

"Didn't you hear me defending her the other day?" Taiga asked.

"But sometimes she treats you...badly," Sakura noted.

"You didn't know her before," the teacher responded quietly. "The first month, she would just find somewhere out of sight and sit. I used to bring her meals up to her, or pass letters from Kiritsugu and she never said a word to me for a month. I thought she was pretty cool, with the hair and the eyes. Then she put one of my grand-father's men into the hospital when he tried to teach her a lesson. It took about half a second."

Thinking back on that, Taiga had thought that Ria might have outright killed the man if she hadn't been there to watch. She could still remember the look of rage and the effort Ria had taken to calm herself down.

"Th..then I stopped bringing her meals," Taiga admitted nervously.

"But...now?" Sakura said, clearly confused.

"Well, three weeks later I uh...got in a bad situation," the teacher explained. "And Big Sister got me out of it."

* * *

"You're Fujimura's grand-daughter aren't you?" one of the three men around her said.

"That's right," Taiga said, clutching her shinai protectively.

"You know, he must think he's pretty secure," another one of them said. "Letting you wander around like this."

"I can take care of myself," the then teenager protested firmly.

"Sure you can," the third laughed.

"Let's see how you can take care of yourself," the first snorted moving forward to reach for her shoulder.

She reacted quickly, snapping out with her shinai to smack the man in the head, much to the amusement of his fellows. Falling back further from the three, Taiga returned to her stance, watching as the man she'd smacked shook off the blow with a sadistic smile.

"You know, it's almost an insult that Fujimura think this kids ready to be out on her own," another commented.

"Nah, I think it is an insult," was the answer.

"Stay back! I'm warning you!" Taiga warned them.

They simply laughed and came in at her. She managed to rebuff them at first, but quickly they'd grabbed the shinai and tore it out of her hands. Next she was pushed down to the ground and they'd started to tear at her clothes. One of them had placed his hand over her mouth to stifle her screams of protest. She had just been realizing what was about to happen when her attackers simply stopped moving as she felt herself covered in something warm and wet.

Then Ria Penn had been there, grabbing her chin roughly and staring into her eyes. "Are you hurt?"

That's when Ria had returned to being "cool" in Taiga's eyes. Actually, Taiga had to say that was when she first decided to stay by the woman's side.

* * *

"She's much better now than she used to be," the teacher summarized. "And she's never hurt Shirou or me."

"Oh," Sakura said slowly. "One other thing, and, uh...I hope you don't take this the wrong way. But why are you working so hard?"

"Why shouldn't I be working hard?" Taiga wondered.

"Sensei, usually, you're rather...laid back," Sakura commented.

"Well, this is a dojo," she responded. "Or at least it was. You don't reach tenth dan without respecting a dojo. And you can't be a good teacher without respecting a classroom, which is what a dojo is."

"So, how about being a guest and respecting the house?" Sakura wondered with an innocent, blinking expression.

Taiga blushed in embarrassment and scratched the back of her head. "Okay, there, I might need some work."

Sakura laughed in response to the teacher and tried to suppress the image of the lovable woman neck deep in a swarm of worms as the sanity and life vanished from her eyes. The sheer surprise and clarity of the image surprised her enough that her guard fell. Usually, talking to one of these small few people that she interacted with regularly kept the memories and hallucinations in the back, not brought them forward.

The purple haired girl's muscles tensed and underneath her smile, the old fears reminded her that they had never left. A shiver worked over her and it seemed as if any moment that her grandfather would be walking in through the door to reclaim her and kill the woman watching her.

"-ura-chan?" Taiga's voice cut through the sound of the girl's beating heart. "Sakura? What's wrong?"

Assassin's Master shook her head and regained her smile. "I...I'm just worried. That's all."

Fujimura-sensei nodded and came around to hold onto Sakura, hugging her comfortingly. "It's going to be all right."

"We're back," Shirou called out then.

Sakura immediately, but politely stepped away from Taiga and put the smile back on her face. "Oh, you're back. I thought it would take longer."

"Tohsaka is still making her decision," Penn-san responded.

"It'll be good," Shirou said.

"I think so too," Lancer agreed with a playful smile.

"Then...we'll be working with Rin then?" Sakura asked noting the satisfied look on Lancer's face and feeling a twinge of jealousy. Sakura watched Penn-san turn to look at her for a moment before moving to inspect the dojo floor.

"Someone has been doing some cleaning here," Ria noted, turning toward Taiga. "But they haven't finished yet."

"Ah..ah, Big Sister," Taiga noted nervously as she gave Sakura a wink while the blonde was looking elsewhere. "Let me get right to that."

"Here, Sakura," Shirou said, "let me help you with the cooking."

"Oh, all right," the purple haired girl responded, flushing slightly as the young man moved to kneel beside her where the ingredients were being prepared.

"Aww, Sakura-chan pulls ahead of me," Lancer said with a pout as the two teens responded with a shake of the head and a somewhat resigned sigh.

After the meal was finished, they shared the small feast mostly quietly with a few pleasantries and casual discussions. By unsaid mutual agreement the subject of the war did not come up save indirectly. Sitting between Lancer and Shirou, Sakura listened to Ria forming a plan of training for the other two humans. Predictably, Fujimura-sensei was being dramatic and predicting she wouldn't even survive the training much less any fight. Equally predictably, everyone was arguing with Shirou that the idea wasn't for them to fight the Servants but to protect himself from the Masters.

Sakura listened to it all with her normal bright, but shallow, smile.

The evening moved on until everyone was lying down to sleep except for Lancer sitting at the door on guard duty for the first part of the evening. Sakura listened to them all going to sleep one after another, Penn-san's slipping into sleep last of the other three. Then she listened further.

Fujimura-sensei was a loud sleeper. She mumbled cheerfully, sometimes moderately indecently. Sakura couldn't catch a name really in the muttering, but it was certain that the woman was dreaming about a lover of some sort. Considering some of what she'd heard over the past few days and the earlier conversation, Sakura found herself inevitably imagining Ria and Taiga and wondering at the nature of that relationship. Assuming she wasn't imagining things.

By comparison, Penn-san was restless. Her breath was quiet but irregular occasionally punctuated by growls and snarls. Glancing over, Sakura watched the woman shift occasionally in her sleep. Some of them looked more like winces than anything else. It somewhat conflicted with her image of the way Penn-san seemed so strong when she was awake.

By comparison to the two other women, Shirou was quiet and uniform in his sleep. He just lay down and slept as if he had neither good nor bad dreams. She wondered if that's the way most people slept: untroubled by evil memories. Just a peaceful resting. Perhaps he was having dreams about Lancer's life the way she dreamed about Assassin.

Lancer wasn't making any noise, Sakura had to sit up and look to the entrance to be certain the green-eyed blonde was indeed there. She was, looking out into the night down toward the city lights below as she leaned back against the frame of the door. She was wearing a pair of white pants and a sweater, but Sakura assumed that she would be able to call her armor and weapons up at a moment's notice.

Watching the woman brought up a different question. Namely just why she had come back from the meeting with Rin looking so satisfied. Sakura quietly stood up and walked to the entrance before sitting down beside the Servant, receiving a nod and a smile as she did.

"Can you not sleep?" Lancer asked.

"I...I was curious," Sakura commented. "Did...something happen with Tohsaka-senpai today?"

Lancer smiled and leaned forward. "I can show you, if you want."

"Sh...show me?" Sakura asked, glancing back toward the sleeping people there, especially lingering on Shirou. "Aren't you on guard duty?"

"It won't take long at all," Lancer assured her soothingly.

She hesitated, but the curiosity was something else keeping her from falling asleep and possibly falling into an uncomfortable dream. If she could be certain that she was going to dream about Assassin again, it would be fine, but after that image of Fujimura-sensei earlier...

"All right," Sakura said. She closed her eyes and tensed up, waiting for whatever it is Lancer intended to do and bracing for it. The light and soft feeling of Lancer's lips briefly touching on hers and leaving brought her to open her eyes to see that Lancer wasn't smiling anymore.

"You hide it well," the Servant said, looking back out into the night. "I thought you were just shy. My apologies."

"What do you mean?" Sakura responded, voice a little hollow.

"You've been...mistreated," Lancer reasoned, she glanced back to where Sakura was about to form a denial. She smiled slightly. "Takes one to know one."

Sakura closed her mouth at the comment, thought about it and then her eyes widened. "You..."

Lancer waved it aside quietly. "Think not on it."

"Are you going to stop...everything?" Sakura asked.

"I was thinking along those lines, yes," Lancer admitted. "Do you want me to?"

"No, that's fine, someone might notice," the purple haired girl commented.

"In that case, I'll say what I told Tohsaka-chan," Lancer said, recovering her normal cheerful tone of voice. "If Shirou-kun or Tohsaka-chan ask about what happened between us. Don't tell them. Just offer to show them."

Sakura opened her mouth to talk and then stopped, uncertain of how to proceed from that and glancing toward Shirou again.

"Also, I know a way around bad dreams," the Servant noted with a cat-like smile. "It's just a little mischievous though."

* * *

Shirou woke up to the feeling of a warm pressure leaning against the side of his body. It came with a rhythmic motion as well as a low pulsing sensation. Cracking his eyes open, he found himself looking down at a shock of purple hair under his face and sticking out from the blanket. From there he looked down to find Sakura's face lying against his shoulder.

His first thought was to pull away, but he didn't want to disturb her by pulling out from under her. She looked rather relaxed and peaceful, and one of her hands had gathered up a bundle of his shirt, holding it tightly. Sakura had attached herself to him rather firmly. He was going to have a hard time freeing himself before Ria saw him at this rate.

That had him thinking. He craned his neck and saw Lancer sleeping with her back to the wall as normal. "Ria...are you awake?"

"Lancer said she was having bad dreams," the voice of the yellow-eyed knight answered tightly.

"Am I in trouble?" he asked.

"Did you sneak into Sakura's futon?" the woman asked. "No. So don't ask foolish questions. I'll talk to Sakura when she wakes up."

"Thank you," Shirou said in relief.

"Now, get up," Ria insisted. "We have to get ready to go to the Einzbern today and that will be decidedly more dangerous than speaking to Tohsaka." She continued before Shirou could interject a comment. "Careful, we don't want to disturb Sakura-chan, but be quick about it."

Evil woman.

* * *

"They're likely going to reach out to the Einzbern today," Rin said as she walked out of her bedroom and adjusted her clothes. "Unless they plan on waiting to hear back from us."

"Would you wait that long if you were them?" Caster asked.

"On the one hand, approaching with an army already is likely to put any Master on their guard," Rin noted.

"It's why they came forward all together rather than holding one of the Servants in the background," the man agreed. "You think that's what they're doing?"

"No, I think Emiya is an idiot that's barging forward on pure idealism," Rin grumbled. "With his Servants trying to make sure he doesn't get himself killed. If he has a deeper plan than being impatient for a happy ending, I don't see it."

"I assume you want me to keep track of what's going on at the meeting, will be all right yourself?" he asked.

"I'm going in broad daylight to the Kotomine Church," she responded. "I should be fine. If Emiya is doing what I think he is, he's heading into a wilderness with no witnesses."

"Do you want me to interfere in their meeting then?" Caster asked, not reassured by the plan.

"For now, just interfere if it looks like anybody might get killed," Rin said. "If the Grail is corrupt, we don't want Servants that aren't harming people to it."

"So, I'm to act as a sort of referee then," the Servant noted with a nod before looking to Rin. "Rin, you should be careful yourself. If the situation is what Emiya says it is then the church might not be the safe-haven you expect."

"Kotomine Kirei is a very dependable and powerful man," Rin insisted sharply. "I'll be in good hands."

"Still," he said. "Do not hesitate to call for me."

"Of course," the magus agreed. "That's basic common sense. But we're in big trouble if I cannot even do this much myself."

* * *

"The bounded field lies not far beyond this point," Ria said. "Assuming it hasn't been expanded and we've already passed it."

"I don't think we've passed it," Shirou said. "I haven't noticed anything like what the field around Tohsaka's house feels like."

"Felt, Shirou-kun," Lancer commented, idly.

"When we cross it, she'll know," the black-knight noted again. Both she and Lancer were in full armor for this meeting, recalling as they did what had happened the only time so far that they had faced Saber. "We know something about Saber but not much about his Master. I saw her once, but she was barely a child then."

"We're not here to fight," Shirou reminded them. "At least we don't want to."

"Until we know for sure her standing, we must assume there will be a fight," Ria reminded him.

"I think we should head this way," Lancer noted.

"You want to fight in the woods with the spear?" Shirou asked.

"It's less of a hindrance than you might think," Lancer assured him as she started walking in the direction she pointed.

"A skilled spearman can make excellent use of their reach and the limited approaches," Ria confirmed. "And it might leave them underestimating us."

"You should be prepared to run, Shirou-kun," Lancer warned. "If this turns hostile, we'll may have to make this a fighting retreat."

"I rather dislike the idea of expecting defeat," the black knight protested.

"There it is," Shirou said quickly, pointing in the general direction of the"scent" he was picking up.

Both of the woman on either side of him nodded and tensed up slightly as they stepped deeper into the forest.

* * *

Illyasviel sighed as she turned her thoughts toward the souls flitting around within her. Her nightmare was coming true. None of the Servants had fallen into her yet, but they were out there.

"I became a cup and seven lumps grew within me," she whispered.

She shook her head clear. It was far too early for such a maudlin thought. "I just want to speak to my brother and ask him some questions first."

Still it was hard not to think about the souls that were already inside her or herself for that matter. A soul made to hold souls. A soul made to filter souls. A soul container of souls.

Illya could almost count the spirits within her though there was still a trouble telling one sensation from another. They were like fireflies within a massive cave, or, and the thought amused her slightly, butterflies in her stomach. In theory, it should be possible to identify each, maybe even see fragments of their lives. But that was theory and it was far away from where she stood at the moment.

Besides, she wasn't particularly certain that she wanted to know the lives of the people that had already died in this war. When she'd had a purpose to focus on she hadn't had to think about it. She had focused her obsession on finding her brother and father and demanding answers. But her father was dead and buried and now she couldn't find the boy he had adopted. Stymied in that, it was hard to keep her thoughts there.

And now she was only left with the Grail War and the instructions to win for the Einzbern family and recover the Third Magic.

"Ridiculous," she muttered. Her mind would be subsumed before the Grail was claimed. There wouldn't be enough left of her to be able to claim even a name. What was left of her would eke out with everyone else into the Greater Grail. "Brother, where are you."

"_Be patient, Illya_," Saber cautioned her. "_He cannot remain in hiding forever."_

_"_I know, Saber," she whispered. "I'm just..." She blinked and stood up, looking out toward the window. "Someone is in the forest."

This might be something that would take her mind off of things for a moment.

* * *

Kotomine looked up as Rin walked into the church. Her presence was a surprise given that none of the Servants had yet fallen. He wondered if she might be arriving to discuss the behaviors of Archer and his tendency to make a rather public mess of things. Standing beside him, Shinji Matou grimaced and looked toward the Tohsaka girl.

"Rin," he said allowed. "It is good to see you healthy."

"Thank you Kirei," she said friendly before looking toward Shinji and commenting coolly. "Looks like you made it here alive. Congratulations." She glanced toward the stump of his arm. "I thought that would have been taken care of by now."

The former pseudo-Master grimaced and tried to hide his maimed limb by turning to the side.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. "Is the high and mighty Rin Tohsaka here to seek sanctuary?"

"Not hardly," Rin scoffed. "I needed to ask some questions about the Fourth War."

Kirei's expression darkened in thought then. Rin could understand that. The past war was bound to be something of sore point for the man, given that he had survived it.

"What specifically do you want to ask about?" he asked.

"The possibility that a Servant of that past war could survive to this time," Rin explained. There was a distinct tenseness in Kirei's shoulders as she said that that the younger magus did not miss. "So they were telling the truth. Why didn't you mention anything about this?"

"I don't know who's telling you these things, Rin," Kirei noted. "But of course it is possible for Servants to achieve incarnation through the Grail. It is the essential purpose for which it was designed, after all. But you seem to be speaking of something in specific."

"I've seen an eighth blonde Servant with a bit of an overbearing attitude recently," the magus commented. "And been hearing some strange things about the nature of the Grail for that matter."

"That is interesting," Kirei commented.

"What's this about the Grail?" Shinji asked.

"Kirei," Rin asked. "Is there anyway to see if the Grail is cursed? That it won't truly grant wishes anymore?"

"What?!" Shinji demanded bitterly. "But what's the point of all of this then?"

"Cursed," Kirei noted thoughtfully as he walked forward, cupping his chin as he passed by Rin. She glanced at him briefly before looking back toward Shinji "Yes, there is a way to confirm whether it is cursed or not."

"What's that?" Rin asked, starting to turn around again to face him just as he lashed out with a blade in his hand.

* * *

"You're a polite guest to wait for me, brother," a small, lilting voice called out as a little girl in a purple dress stepped out from the shadows. "Good morning. I'm Illyasviel von Einzbern. I've been looking for you."

Ria turned toward the sound and stared in disbelief. Ten years ago, the daughter of Irisviel had barely been five or six years old by appearances. And yet this girl barely looked to be twelve years old, if that.

"Good morning," Shirou answered cautiously as Lancer and Ria looked about in the trees. "I'm Emiya Shirou. This is Lancer and my guardian, Ria Penn."

"Good morning, Illya-chan," Lancer said with a smile and a nod.

"Your courtesy is appreciated, Illyasviel," Ria added.

"Might I ask your reason for coming her, brother?" Illya asked.

"We wanted to talk to you," he told her. "We've learned the truth about the Grail."

"The truth, about the Grail..." Illya asked, voice turning hollow. "What's that?"

"That it is corrupted," Shirou said. The little girl's interest peaked again as he said that, apparently it was a different response than she was expecting. "You can ask Ria, she's seen it used. Whatever wish you..."

"It doesn't matter," Illyasviel commented. "I have what I came here for already."

"What may that be?" Lancer asked.

"I want to meet my brother and ask him some questions," she explained. "I was told you'd be a Master in this war, so I have come as one myself. So we can have this talk."

"I'm just fine with that," Shirou commented. "Just what do you want to talk about?"

"One moment," Illyasviel said cheerfully. "Just talking is boring. Saber?" The massive form of the xiphos wielding warrior faded into view in front of them.

"Are you certain about this, Illya?" he asked.

"I am," the little girl said with a smile sitting underneath hard eyes. "Brother, you have until my Saber kills your Lancer and your...familiar to talk to me. Does that sound fair?"

"I think you should listen to them, first, Illyasviel," her Servant insisted.

"Saber, I command it! Kill Lancer and the woman in black!" she demanded angrily.

Saber grimaced, but surged forward regardless of his misgivings.

Lancer and Ria both grimaced at the declaration.

"Wait a minute here!" Shirou shouted. "What's all this about?"

"I want to know why my father abandoned me for you," Illyasviel explained. "Can you tell me why?"

* * *

When confronted by the betrayal of someone that was almost family, most people froze. Rin was magus, she'd been brought up aware of a number of methods that could twist someone to betray their closest family. She fell backwards into a deliberate roll, barely avoiding the man's slash. She frantically pushed herself into the pews to give herself some cover as Kirei pressed his attack.

Meanwhile Shinji's choice of action seemed to panic and hide behind a pillar or something.

"To be honest, Rin," Kirei said as he leaped over the obstacle to a position looming over the young magus. "I'm pleased it turned out this way. It gives me a sense of closure to know that the daughter will fall to her father's killer."

Rin responded by tossing one of her gems up into the air where it burst into a blinding display of light as she activated the the ring Caster had given her. The increased ability that came from the ring's enhancement was not going to make her any more skilled. Wasting it by trying for a lucky knock out blow on the priest was, put simply, madness.

"_Caster, what is your situation?" _Rin asked as she pushed herself to her feet and jumped over the back of another set of pews.

Rin was counting the seconds until her enhanced abilities died, but winced as even with the enhancement, she felt the priest's blade score a hit across her left shoulder. The pain through her off slightly and she slammed the other shoulder into one of the church's columns before scrabbling forward, desperate not to waste the time the stored spell had.

"_They've engaged," _Caster told her, quickly moving on "_Are you in danger?"_

"_Yes," _Rin returned shortly, pushing off the column and leaping for the front doors of the church with the fading remnants of her empowerment. A blade cut along her right leg as she was in mid leap, she landed on reinforced and almost felt like the injured leg would just about snap under the force of the landing.

As it was, the only reason she go rolling across the ground mostly out of control was because she practically landed on top of Shinji, shoving him out of the door and into the courtyard ahead of her.

"_Use a seal to call me forward," _Caster instructed.

_"It's not a Servant and he's underestimating me," _she protested, shoving herself aside to avoid the blade that stabbed into the wall beside her. "_If Emiya's fight has started..."_

"It was a good effort, Rin," Kirei said behind her.

Rin gasped, finding that her body was frozen in place. She knew what had happened, he'd finally snapped one of the Black Keys into her shadow, as he could have done from the start. She was going to have to use that command seal.

"_Rin," _Caster told her insistently.

"I wonder if your Servant can get here in time to..."

"_Caster, I..."_

Kirei's voice was cut off in a snort just as motion returned to her limbs, distracting her.

Glancing back she saw a figure in what looked like clothes that had been snatched from someone's drying laundry including a hooded sweater of some type. They had just kicked the key out of Rin's shadow by the look of it and forced Kirei to step back from a hand strike. The figure's left arm was drawn back and Rin could tell just from that that this person had been a Master at some point. Like Shinji, this person was missing her left hand.

"I really didn't want to come back here," the person noted, revealing herself to be a woman. "But I can't just watch this."

"Bazett," Kirei noted changing his stance to something more serious. "I had thought you were dead."

"Get out of here, girl," the woman snapped back over her shoulder. "I'll cover you."

Rin nodded and set herself to running, pausing only to irritably drag Shinji to his shaking feet. "Move it! We don't want to be here!"

"What the hell is going on here?" Shinji demanded.

"_Situation resolved, Caster," _Rin told her Servant as she gripped the strip of gold that formed the second amulet her Servant had provided. There was a flush of heat and most of the pain disappeared from her leg. "_A third party intervened."_

She could almost feel the combined disapproval and relief from her Servant. "_Do not let your guard down."_

Rin risked one look back into the courtyard of the church and watching their mystery rescuer trading blows with Kirei. She shoved Shinji forward. "Move!"

"Quit acting like you're in charge of..."

"Shut up and run, idiot!" Rin snapped as she turned her thoughts back to Caster. "_I'm not planning on it."_

They kept running until it felt to Rin like her lungs were going to explode. Beside her, Shinji seemed to be in a similar state as they both slowed into a fatigued, but hurried walk until they could take a turn into an empty building for concealment and at least a brief chance for rest. Gathering herself, Rin edged to the doorway of their hiding spot and glanced outward.

"I don't think he could have followed us," she said. "But he'll have ways to track us, so..."

Her planned instructions were blown out of her head as something slammed into the back of it. The impact set her skull to ringing, destroyed her balance and reduced her thoughts to mush for a few seconds. She was still dizzy from the blow to the back of the head when she felt the first kick to her stomach followed by a second.

"I am sick and tired of you smug Tohsaka girls having everything your way!" Shinji ranted at her, his eyes darting about wildly. "Your own family art isn't enough, you have to steal the position of heir from me too."

He kicked her in the head this time, perhaps thinking that he was starting to see her recover from the first blow. His words floated loosely through Rin's concussed head as she tried to make sense of what she was hearing and what was going on. For some reason, the thought "I let it happen again," flickered through her mind, but the context of what "it" was seemed hard to grasp.

"You wouldn't bother with me if I wasn't Sakura's brother huh?" he demanded as he straddled over her, and punched her in the face again. "I wish I could have been there to see grandfather take the smugness out of her and feed it to the worms."

Rin blinked and tried to reach up to grab her aching head as a weakened part of her snapped angrily at her inaction. "I've gotten away from Kirei only to be killed by this loser?"

"Well, I know how to deal with uppity Tohsaka girls, Rin!" he shouted as he leaned his stump down into her chest and clumsily tore her blouse open.

The blatant implication and clumsy assault he initiated cut through the fog of concussion in a fashion that even the vague references to the horrors Sakura had faced at her grandfather's mercies had only dented. The other was beyond her experience and couldn't lay hold in her dazed state, but this she understood as well as anyone could who had not actually experienced it.

Her hand struck up into Shinji's throat, causing him to choke and fall back away from her as he brought his hand up to his neck and tried to breathe. Slowly, Rin stood up, glaring at Shinji as she held a hand to her bloodied forehead. The attention to the injury was almost automatic, not something she was actively thinking about. Instead, she only had one particular thought on her mind.

"How many times?" Rin asked darkly as she raised her hand and started to point a single finger toward Shinji. "How many times did you rape my sister?"

Shinji was still struggling to get full breaths in and his answers came back wheezing and intelligible as he stumbled away from her. The pathetic boy was slowly recovering his breath and with it his strength, but even with that he seemed to be cowering and trying to find an exit he could stumble to. A purplish light started to build around her finger as individual words started to make it out of Shinji's recovering throat.

"Wait," he said hoarsely.

"I've done that enough," the magus snarled as she unleashed the first of many high powered gandrs into Shinji's body. Her face was impassive, save the cold rage behind her eyes, as his body showed the extent of the illnesses that Rin summoned within him. She wasn't precisely sure just when the boy died, but she was reasonable certain that it was long before she stopped barraging him with her chosen attack spell.

And then she was left alone with the mountainous weight of her failures bearing down on her shoulders.

* * *

Saber's sword came in sharply at Lancer, slicing through a narrow tree that the white-armored woman had tried to maneuver between them as easily as if it were a blade of glass. With barely any space she leaped back, flipping over the sword and landing back on her feet as Ria struck her black blade across the man's stomach. The blade cut through the tunic the man was wearing but simply skidded off the flesh. Almost immediately, the dark knight had to raise her sword in a block as a swift kick came in at her. Even then, the blocked attack still forced her back and almost took her balance away.

"Call this is off!" Shirou called out to Illya.

"The agreement is we talk, brother," the little girl insisted with something of a pout. "So let's talk, brother. Did my father ever talk about me?"

She was moving around on the other side of the fight, keeping well clear of a line of fire. Even assuming that Shirou had something to fire with.

"I..." he glanced over toward Ria who grimaced at him before exchanging a look with Lancer.

"Did he ever talk about the little girl he promised to come home to?" Illya demanded, her voice sweet as she flitted behind the trees, watching past the fight. "Tell me why he didn't keep that promise."

Ria moved in with her sword to block Saber's strike, forcing her body into it and gritting her teeth as Lancer came in from the side and stabbed forward with her spear. The giant's hand pushed it aside, but she moved with the momentum to swing the butt of the spear into the man's face. Saber took a step to the side and nodded, acknowledging the hit before his return threw both woman back through the trees.

Lancer managed to twist herself about so that her feet collided with a tree, allowing her to bounce safely to the ground. Across from her, Ria came down to the ground and dug in almost purely on strength to avoid losing her own balance.

Illya's words were piercing, but she didn't have time to answer them and could only hope that Shirou would get through to her with what little he knew.

The words were stabbing into Shirou as he tried to move around to get close to Illyasviel and force her to listen to him somehow. He kept thinking back over the five years that his father had taken care of him and the somewhat carefree life he'd had then. Meanwhile, this girl was wondering where her father was and why he would stay away.

"Shirou-kun," Lancer called out. "I think the only thing I have that can work will kill him."

Even with the impulse of the Command Seal driving him, Saber found that statement interesting. They had come saying that the Grail was corrupted, perhaps they were seeking an alliance of sorts.

"I have something," Ria admitted. "But it will definitely leave nothing behind."

"You shouldn't hold back anything," Saber warned them as he slashed inward. "It is unlikely that you are able to bring me to an end."

Both blonde women grimaced at that comment as they moved to meet his next attack. Ria, unable to cut the man's flesh with the blackened blade focused instead on catching his attacks while Lancer probed his defenses with her spear, looking for an opening.

"My Saber is invincible," Illyasviel explained casually. "Throw everything that you have at him and you will see that there is no hope of your winning here."

"We didn't come here to win a fight," Shirou protested, around him the trees were somehow vanishing again into that field of swords. "We came here to talk to you."

"Then why aren't you talking?" Illyasviel demanded. "What reason can you give me that you're not answering my questions?"

Shirou started to say something and was distracted by a brief and restrained grunt of pain. Glancing aside, he saw Lancer gripping her side and the red flow of blood from the wound she'd just taken. He started to move when Ria stepped in to block another blow and took the moment to level a forbidding glare his way.

"Talk to her, Shirou," she ordered, grimacing as she maneuvered to get between the giant and the recovering Lancer. "Tell her!"

"What does your knight wish you to tell me?" the purple garbed girl asked.

"Our father didn't abandon you," Shirou shouted. "He was forbidden from seeing you!"

Illya blinked and stopped moving, a frown coming over her face. "Saber, forget them. Kill Shirou. I..."

"Rhongomyniad!" Illya's attention turned toward Saber and idly noted the spear blow through her Servant's body as the huffing Lancer drove it forward.

"Lancer what did you..."

"She was about to order Saber to kill you, Shirou-kun!" Lancer insisted. "I had to finish it."

"Saber's not finished," Illya noted as Saber indeed started to stand back up. "And now you have two useless weapons against my Saber."

"Were I you," Saber noted. "I would take this moment to escape."

Ria grimaced and set herself in a curious stance, starting to raise her blackened sword up over her head.

"Too late," Illya said childishly. "Saber I command you to..."

She wanted to know whether what she was hearing was correct, whether or not she could trust her adoptive brother. Almost immediately, images overwhelmed her thoughts. Images of her brother fixing appliances, showing people how to maintain a bow or a bokken. Images of Shirou working around town or at the school started to swirl through her thoughts. Then she shook herself clear and she was standing in the forest, mouth open mid sentence as she considered the years worth of memories that didn't belong to her which had just floated to her mind.

Everyone was staring at Illya expectantly, waiting for her to finish giving that command. She couldn't sure how long she had simply been staring at them while those images passed through her mind. Slowly, she closed her mouth and crossed her arms.

"Let's talk then," Illyasviel spoke imperiously, waving Saber to come back and join her. "Make it good."


	7. Chapter 7

Rin slumped down into a corner, cradling her head and feeling simply empty.

"They have stopped fighting over here for now," Caster told her. "I have not had to interfere." That last had been made reproachfully.

"Keep watching," Rin instructed. "Try to trace Shirou to his lair."

"Understood."

The magus sighed and expelled a breath as her eyes took in the lump of putrid flesh and bones that had been Shinji Matou until now. That represented the death of the image she had of her sister's happy life among the Matou. Kirei's betrayal was dwarfed by that discovery.

Rotely she gathered the edges of her torn blouse together to cover what the slime had revealed. Her own moment of vulnerability bothered her, but it was memories of Sakura that were dominating her right now. Rin found herself wondering just how many times Sakura must have wanted to say something, to ask for help maybe. While Rin sat in her magus's pride ignoring the younger girl.

For Sakura's own good.

Maybe if Rin had been more selfish when they were younger, then things might have been better.

Her head had started ringing again. The surge of clarity she'd received when Shinji had attacked her was fading and she felt tired and sore. There was a rising nausea and she just wanted to go to sleep until it was all gone. Part of her knew she should be working on a self healing spell, but it was hard stringing together the thoughts necessary to do that.

Grimacing, she pulled herself together and roughly started walking back outside. The trip back to her home was vague and lurid. Unlike the images that had come up from Lancer's comparatively innocent antics, the images assaulting her now were not arousing or embarrassing. They were violent, horrid and disgusting.

She wandered in her thoughts from Kirei murdering her father to Shinji brutalizing her sister and sometimes intermixing it all with putrid worms running in and out of the images. She saw herself in these daymares, striding through the mire obliviously regal.

She must have looked quite the sight, torn blouse, bruises and cuts. Still no one bothered her. Part of that was just Japanese culture, the other was her choices of travel directions, looking for the most obscure paths that she could find in her still addled state.

Then it felt rather like she'd fallen down and was lifted up and carried. Caster probably disobeyed her instructions to come find her. Though the feel of these arms was different from that of her Servant's somehow. Eventually, she was carried them within a structure of some kind and laid her down on what had to bed of some kind, maybe a futon.

* * *

One moment, Taiga was practicing with her shinai to burn off some nervous energy and the next there was a tall purple haired woman with a blind fold carrying a vaguely conscious, quite bloody Rin Tohsaka into the building.

"Assassin!" Sakura gasped in surprise.

Taiga's eyes widened as she moved to stand between Sakura and the woman. "Stand back, Sakura!"

The purple haired woman turned to look toward Taiga with a slight smile at the teacher's gesture. Not that she doubted Taiga's skill at all, the woman had an excellent stance and seemed to have a lot of training. Assassin's background had less to do with training than with bloodthirsty instinct, but she'd learned to recognize humans that could potentially be irritating. However, when it came down to it, the woman was a very skilled human with no magecraft and no weapons to speak of.

It didn't matter how skilled she was, her offer of protection to Sakura was simply amusing.

"Are there bandages?" Assassin asked.

"It's okay, Fujimura-sensei," Sakura said from behind Taiga. "She's with us."

"Bandages!" Taiga agreed. "We've got those. Put her down over there, please?"

"What happened, Assassin?" There was a curiously bland tone to Sakura's voice just like when they had talked about the death of their kyudo-club friends earlier in the week.

"She went to the Kotomine church," the woman explained calmly as she moved to set Rin down. "Your brother and the priest were there. They assaulted her. She was able to escape due to another party."

Assassin gave her rather spotty report as Taiga rushed over with their supply of medical supplies.

"You're one of these Servants, why didn't you step in?" she demanded angrily as she went about bandaging Rin. "Tohsaka-chan, can you hear me?"

"Don't send her away," the girl muttered.

"Umm, she's not going anywhere," Taiga commented as she took in the girl's various injuries.

The cut across her shoulder was mostly clotted, but still bleeding. There was another cut to her leg, but it appeared to be old and well-healed. Her stomach was bruising up, but there wasn't anything serious there. Rin's hair in back was soaked with blood where someone had hit her in the back of the head. Still, it wasn't more blood than she'd expect for a head injury. What bothered her was the severe concussion.

"I didn't step in because I didn't have a reason to," Assassin responded.

Taiga glared at the woman before turning back to treating Rin's injuries.

She was required to have some first aid licensing to maintain her kendo instructor's license, so she knew a lot of what to do. More than that, back in her teen years, she'd still seen a lot of stuff like this from her family's dealings with other families.

"I didn't know..." Rin mumbled.

"Sakura-chan, you can do magic right? Can you heal her?" Taiga wondered. "Equip the white magic item or something?"

"It doesn't work like that," Sakura said nervously. "And I can't really do much...Does she need anything?"

"She'll probably be fine with a little rest, nothing looks immediately life-threatening," Taiga assured the other girl. Really, Taiga's first thought here was a hospital, and quickly. But that was likely going to be more dangerous than doing it alone. "But if you can do anything to speed it along?"

"I'll try," Sakura said finally before she moved to sit beside the partially awake Rin. "_Why did you bring her here?"_

Assassin didn't answer the question as Sakura leaned over her sister and her mind wandered to thoughts of Assassin's sisters. Her Servant had talked little of their deaths save that she had wished that it had never happened. Now, she was sitting here, expected to heal her sister.

"I can't believe that someone that Big Sister admitted some respect for would be so callous as to just watch someone else fight for their life," Taiga was berating Assassin.

"My duty is only to Sakura," the purple haired woman answered casually. "When it became apparent that she wasn't going to make it to her home, I stepped in. That should be enough for the duty of one stranger to another."

Assassin's attention wasn't seriously on the teacher, but rather her Master and what choice she would make here. Or if she would make any choice at all.

"That's not enough!" Taiga protested indignantly. "How long did you let her walk around bleeding and dazed? And her clothes are torn! Aren't you a woman too?"

"She took care of matters herself," Assassin responded with a shrug.

Sakura laid a hand on Rin's bloody forehead, trying to see something in her blood sister's dazed eyes, but there was no connection. Like always, Rin wasn't really looking at her. Her mind was elsewhere. Though logically, the reason for that was that currently Rin's mind was scattered, it was still an old story to the purple haired Matou girl.

The whisperings in the back of her head told her what she could do to settle things once and for all right here. The small mysteries she'd been taught had limited use, but with Rin like this, she could end the rivalry subtly enough. The whispers in the back of her mind were telling her which curse she could use to make the idea a reality.

On the other hand, Rin had gone out of her way to protect her when they were attacked by Rider. For that matter Assassin had said that she regretted devouring her own sisters. Certainly Lancer and Shirou would be upset if Rin were to die.

Or she could just do nothing. Likely Rin would heal completely and everything would go on as it always had. She didn't have to help her sister.

"Look at me," she whispered tightly.

She called on her prana and whispered slightly as she tipped the power into Rin's battered body. As the small spell finished, Sakura started to shift away from Rin, only to have the girl grab at her arm. Pausing and turning to look at her Rin, staring up at her.

"Father promised you'd be happy," Rin whispered, and Sakura was fairly certain that she wasn't actually aware of who she was talking to.

"Please rest, Tohsaka-senpai," Sakura said, pushing the girl back down and pulling the blanket over her sister. "It's fine now, Fujimura-sensei."

"That's good to hear," Taiga responded with a sigh. "I'm going to run for an ice pack and so more bandages. Will you be fine, Sakura-chan?"

"Assassin is here, so yes," Sakura said.

"I won't be long," Taiga assured them as she ran out of the dojo. "Keep an eye on Tohsaka."

"_Well?" _Assassin asked.

_"If I devour my sister, she'll never look at me," _Sakura said simply. "_I can't do much, but she'll be back to normal quicker now."_

"_She killed your brother for you," _Assassin told her.

Sakura glanced toward Assassin in surprise. "_She killed Shinji. You mean while defending herself?"_

_"No, he bragged about raping you," _Assassin clarified, to Sakura's shock. "_She killed him for that. Reduced him to an unidentifiable mass of infected flesh. She asked him how many times he'd raped **her sister** and then killed him. Your sister loves you. As mine did me._"

Sakura hesitated. _"You...wanted me to make a choice. An uninformed choice! What if I had gone the other direction?"_

_"Then I would never have told you what I just did," _the purple haired woman responded succinctly. "_I would have let you continue thinking she didn't love you."_

"Is that cruelty or kindness?" Sakura wondered out loud.

"_Careful, if she recovers soon, you don't want her overhearing too much," _Assassin noted in a teasing tone.

* * *

The air of menace and anger didn't disappear from around Illyasviel when she agreed to hear Shirou and his Servants out. It merely became became subtler, something that spoke of anticipation.

Just to be on the safe side, he kept sight of the field of swords that he'd first noticed at Tohsaka's house. As usual, he was the only one that seemed to notice it around. He wasn't sure why this made him feel more comfortable. After all, he still wasn't even sure what it meant. He was tempted to try to grip one of the swords just to see if he could. Despite the fact that he still had no idea what the field meant or even if it was just a hallucination he still felt better with it in sight.

"What do you mean our father was forbidden from seeing me?" she demanded. "My father was strong. No one could stop him from seeing me. He saved my mother, he could have saved me."

"The Grail killed him," Shirou said. "It just did it slowly."

"How is that possible?" Illya demanded, frowning.

"A curse," her brother responded, looking toward Ria. He tried to ignore the way that Lancer was favoring one side as she looked across towards where Saber stood. "Ria also carries it."

Immediately the little girl turned to look at the yellow-eyed blonde woman in the black armor. "Then why is she still alive?"

Ria stood up straight and matched eyes with Illyasviel's Saber. "Because I served as the Saber of Emiya Kiritsugu."

The current Saber arched an eyebrow and looked toward her in consideration.

"To put it simply, the curse can't kill me faster than I heal. Your father lacked that benefit," Ria finished.

"Then you are not fighting at your full strength?" Saber asked.

"No," she noted.

"Then my compliments that you were able to do as well as you were," he said in a respectful tone.

Internally he was more cautious. What that meant all depending on the mechanics of why she wasn't fighting at full strength. If it was a simply crippling effect, then her full capacity could be considered what she was showing now. However, if she was simply holding back to maintain her long-term health, it could be dangerous. She could always decide to stop holding back for a moment and simply take a long recovery time afterwards.

Lancer stood, hands behind her back demurely as she considered that she was also fighting at less than her full strength. Possibly because of her fuzzy memories. Possibly because Shirou hadn't actually summoned her deliberately. She'd responded to his guilt and mourning somehow. Possibly because Shirou just didn't have that much prana to give her.

"If he still had a Servant then why didn't he send _you_ to get me?" Illya demanded.

"Dad used to go on business trips fairly often," Shirou cut in. "Ria came back from one just before this all started. I've always known Dad was sadder after he came back. And Ria always came back in a bad mood. I don't know what they were about exactly..."

"We were trying to get into Einzbern land," Ria confirmed. "But we could never find the edge of the bounded field. His magic circuits were failing due to the curse, and I am no magus."

Illyasviel frowned and crossed her arms as she considered matters.

"_I told you that you needed to look at matters from both sides before making a decision,_" Saber told her.

"_But which side is lying?" _she wondered. _"Do I go with what makes the most sense?"_

_"A good lie will make more sense than the truth sometimes, unfortunately," _Saber noted.

"We want to destroy the Grail and end this whole mess before it kills more people," Shirou told her. "If we had your..."

Shirou stopped as something attracted his attention in the desolate field of swords that was most strongly visible to him. The trees of the forest standing as almost ghosts around his position. He could see a figure moving from point to point in a darting motion.

"Someone's coming," he said, looking in the appropriate direction.

"That is a convenient distraction," Illyasviel noted sharply.

"No, he's right," Saber commented before looking to the two women.

"Indeed, there seems to be an uninvited guest," Lancer agreed.

Unseen, Caster noted the man coming to the scene as well and grimaced. There was no way that this wasn't going to turn into chaos with him coming. Still, there were three Servants present, plus "Ria Penn" and two Masters. If anything this seemed like an insane attempt.

"Appropriate," Caster muttered.

Below him, Ria had settled into a stance halfway between watching Saber and watching the direction of the newcomer. On Shirou's right, Lancer stood at the ready in a position that left her able to watch both Ria and the front. Saber stood in a position similar to Ria, watching both the two blonde women and the direction of their visitor.

The slender, blue-armored form appeared between two trees and paused long enough to trace a series of runes into the air, granting them all a wild, wordless smile before he called out. "Riastrad!"

The instant the word came out of his mouth the eyes of both Lancer and Ria widened as they braced themselves for the battle to come. In front of them, the blue-armored man's form began to warp and bloat far beyond what Caster remembered from his one encounter with Berserker. The legs seemed to almost twist around backwards as the muscles twisted and swelled. His hair twisted all about like a shrub of raw, bloody spikes twisting about his head, which itself quickly grew to be unrecognizable. The lower jaw jutted forward, the canines growing into tusks as the cheeks seemed to draw backward making the mouth a wide gaping maw. The fingers on the hands stretched outward, growing into wide grasping talons.

Berserker was moving before the transformation complete, the heat of his body coming off him in waves as his prana flooded his mind and body. He seemed to be making a bee line for Saber, charging straight at the biggest target. Saber tensed and readied himself, eyes narrowed and cautious even as the two women started to move themselves.

When it looked like the creature had committed itself to a course of action, Saber and Lancer started to move even as Ria held herself back. Saber slashed low with his xiphos, not expecting to really hit in the first strike but rather to drive Berserker into position for another attack. Beside him, Lancer was already moving as, well, reaching for her knife.

Berserker slid under the already low blow like a dog darting after a fox. Immediately afterward he hopped away from Saber's kick following it up. A leap afterwards took him up over Saber's shoulder, eying Illya as he moved. A slash from the black sword cut him off and he had to twist back to land between Saber and Ria. As he started to come to the ground, Lancer let fly.

"Carnwennan!"

The Little White Knife sped toward the back of Berserker, where it would turn all those enchantments into a host of knives stabbing deep into the enchanted warrior. Lancer and Ria both goggled as Berserker twisted aside and the knife batted aside into the ground. Spinning out of his landing, Berserker charged forward at Lancer who narrowed her eyes and darted between Shirou and the enemy.

"What is that?!" Illya demanded.

The spear tip swung out, Berserker dodging easily without losing momentum, the butt swung around and he likewise ducked past it. Twisting, Lancer struck the blade of her spear into the ground behind her and twisted herself around the pole in a swinging kick that clipped Berserker's shoulder.

Saber stayed close to Illya as he watched Berserker press Lancer, wanting to go and help but unwilling to leave Illya unprotected. The Berserker was clearly targetting the Masters and aiming at whichever one was least protected. He watched as the black knight darted in from the flank to support her partner who was already recovering from her pole-dance and shoving her Master back away from the approaching Servant.

Berserker dodged aside from Ria's sword and leaped far back into the air, flipping around so that his monstrous face turned to look towards Saber and Illyasviel.

"We're being forced apart!" Ria shouted out.

Saber nodded as he moved to meet Berserker's swift and erratic attack. He had somewhat an idea what he'd be like as a Berserker, but this man was completely in the opposite direction. Instead of overbearing strength, he had insane speed and turning at angles that shouldn't have been possible. And most dangerous, instead of a mindless rage, this man became possessed of a rabid cunning.

His madness wasn't an inflicted curse but an unleashed spell.

The man couldn't kill him perhaps, but eventually, at this rate, he would be able to reach Illya. This was going to be touch and go, perhaps his Nine Lives could end this in one go, or the Riastrad might have defenses beyond just the insane speed. He was going to have to save it for a key moment. As it was, trusting his instinct, he pushed himself to the limits of his speed in intercepting Berserker's attacks without leaving Illya open.

Shirou watched as Illyasviel and Saber were pushed further away from them. Even he could see what was happening. Already, they were separated to the point that Servants were unwilling to leave their Master's side. He felt sure that Berserker was playing with them, and as soon as they were far enough apart, he'd set about slaughtering one group and then the other.

"Illyasviel! We need to get close!" he shouted.

"Move!" Ria ordered, as she pushed forward. "Shirou, at all costs do not fall behind."

Shirou nodded as he sprinted forward, pushing his body as much as he could to not hold Ria back. As his muscles started to burn he desperately reached for the prana and, as if it were a failing machine, and reinforced to keep up with the supernatural speed of his guardian. His eyes searched through the field of swords as he moved.

"He's coming!" Lancer called out. Ria came up short, sword at the ready as Berserker avoided Saber's last attack and twisted about to redirect himself back at Shirou. As soon as he was in the charge, Saber grabbed Illyasviel up and started moving in a circle around towards where Shirou was himself.

Caster watched the fight against Berserker with a curious eye, it looked desperate, but Berserker was going to have to disengage soon. Assuming someone ordered him to, of course. What really had his attention, however, was the activity in the forest around the fighters. Apparently, Berserker's Master was not above using him as a decoy. He quietly moved further in and got ready.

Rin's lack of a mental presence concerned him, but she was still alive and his task was here.

As Berserker fell back from Ria and Lancer again, he found that Saber and Illya had moved behind the knights. Circling around, the beast tried to reach where Saber was carrying Illya before the giant joined up with the other Servants and their Master but was just short of making it. As the beast made his swipe at the tiny Master, Ria stepped forward on his flank and swung out with her blade, forcing Berserker to leap over it. Lancer stabbed upward.

"Rhongomyniad!" she shouted, stabbing upward. Berserker avoided the actual spear, but the sheer weight that came with the invoked Noble Phantasm smashed into, sending him spiraling out of control.

Taking the advantage, Saber strode forward, pulling his blade back, preparing for his own attack, but found that as soon as he stepped forward into stance, that the beast leaped far and away, vanishing back into the trees. Saber, Ria and Lancer spared only a brief moment of surprise before turning back toward the Masters behind them.

Out of the trees, a mass of black, winged forms started to swarm forward.

"Shirou!" Lancer and Ria called out.

"Illya!"

They were moving already to intercept the oncoming horde of gargoyle like things. And then it began to rain swords. As the blades struck down into the gargoyles, each creature exploded into a burst of bright, magical fire with a bright purple hue. From his position, Caster grimaced as he realized that the gargoyles were only made to look like assaulting beasts. It was a trap for melee oriented Servants, drive them to gather their Masters into an easily defensible collection and then swarm them with suicide bombs.

One was almost certain to catch the Masters in the explosion.

There were hordes of the things, he wasn't going to have the time to catch them all. Where the hell had they all come from?

"Stand back!" Ria shouted as she once again lifted her sword over her head. Prana swirled around her as the blade began to swirl with darkened prana.

Lancer's eyes widened as she turned to look at the blade with widened eyes even as Saber took a position on another flank and pulled his own sword back. She almost was too surprised to draw her own spear back, getting ready to toss it almost straight up into the air with as much strength as she could muster.

Shirou grabbed Illya, surprising her and wrapping himself around her small body over her protests as he tried to reach for anything that he could use to shelter Illyasviel and the others. Almost everything in the field around him were swords, meant for attack. And he still didn't know what would happen if he were to grab one, but he didn't see anything else he could do. Something caught his eye as the Servants unleashed their attacks.

Caster looked on as the three other Servants set about to unleash their Noble Phantasms and continued to direct his rain of swords. Still, there were too many coming from too many directions. Some of the explosions were going to be very close. He grimaced and reached in his mind to trace and deploy Rho Aias...and stopped in sheer disbelief and confusion.

"Excalibur!" "Nine Lives! Hundred Heads Shooter!" "Rhongomyniad: Fall From Heaven!"

The wave of dark energy ripping out of the blade cascaded forward, cutting through trees and gargoyles alike as it tore a swath out of the terrain and the enemy. Beside it, Saber tore through another flank in almost instant and what seemed to be a meteor obliterated another side of the oncoming swarm. Explosions of green fire erupted all around the small group of fighters, much to Caster's trepidation.

Slowly, the smoke cleared to reveal the Servants, Illya and Shirou standing behind the wide purple field of Rho Aias extending from Shirou's outstretched arm. It quickly shattered as Shirou slumped forward, exhausted and breathing hard.

"How..." Caster muttered.

Lancer however was staring at Ria as the woman looked to Shirou and leaned on her sword. The white-armored woman moved to the crater formed by her spear, small compared to the damage dealt by Nine Lives and miniscule next to the swath of damage dealt by Excalibur. She felt herself sweating, the prana she'd used taking a telling toll on her body. Picking up Rhongomyniad she used it to steady herself and support her dignity.

"Is everyone okay?" Shirou asked.

"We need to leave," Illya said quickly, dusting herself off. "I don't know about the swords, but those gargoyles were an Einzbern mystery. Which means the castle with its field will not be a place for us."

"Aren't you the Einzbern Master?" Ria asked tightly.

"Apparently not the only one," Saber commented.

Caster stepped into the clear then, scanning around through the trees. "The swords were mine. Forgive the intrusion, but my instructions were that I should only interfere to make sure no one died here."

"And who are you?" Saber asked.

"Caster," Lancer said with a idle trace of feminine hostility. "Much as I like meeting new people, Illya-chan is correct, we should move."

As they left, Caster reached down and picked up something from the ground that had him frowning deeper.

* * *

Lancer was drained after the fight, but she could see it was worse for the black knight. Ria's face was sweating and there was a twitch to her eye. The pallor was more extreme as well. Her stance and gait were rigid in her normal fashion but there was a forced quality to it. The sword wasn't in evidence, but Lancer couldn't take her mind off of it.

Excalibur. In the hands of Ria Penn. Arturia Penndragon. It was so obvious that she was disappointed that she hadn't noticed it before. That wasn't something that she could blame on her fuzzy memories, not really. And now the darkened, violent woman seemed that much more disturbing to her.

Caster was keeping a watch that they weren't being tracked. However, that still left Illya, Saber and Caster following them to their hide out. Though Saber and Caster were remaining in spirit form by the looks of things.

Shirou had agreed to host everybody. Which stretched even Lancer's open-heart. Ria was openly gritting her teeth, though that may have been connected to her exhaustion as well. The dojo came into view as the sun started to set. Ria was the first to step up the doorway and move inside, finding a surprise inside. She looked to see Rin lying bandaged and sleeping on a futon as Sakura cooked. Taiga turned to give a welcome and froze as she saw Ria.

"We have more guests," the black knight said as she gestured out the door. "What is Toh..."

That was as much as she got as out as her body spasmed sending a painful looking shiver through her. Throwing herself aside she stumbled as far from the dojo as she could before dropping to her knees and proceeding to vomit up evil, black looking sludge.

Taiga was probably the first to move to follow, but stopped as Ria's face turned toward her fearful and forbidding, black fluid leaking out of her eyes. "Don't come over here! Don't touch it!"

Then her body spasmed again and more of the sludge was forced up out of her mouth as everybody started to gather forward and watch her trying to purge the evil substance from her body.

"Ria-chan," Taiga whispered as she started to move forward regardless. Lancer stepped forward to grab her as the black knight continued to shudder and vomit. The sounds coming from Ria ranged from nauseous heaves to rage-filled growls and frantic wails, as if she was being overwhelmed by every unpleasant emotion possible one after another, or maybe all at once.

"Wait until its over," Lancer whispered, holding tight to the teacher.

Behind them, Rin had awakened with the commotion. She moved to the door way and watched through the crowd of uncertain people as Ria continued to battle the curse. Kirei's betrayal had been the cap to the intellectual proof that the Grail was corrupted. Watching this, however, drove the truth home very emotionally as the usually strong woman was reduced to a wreck in front of her, with no one able to do anything about it without risk.

Slowly, spasms eased up until Ria was weakly crawling away from the quivering puddle of black mud. She reached her feet faintly and stumbled forward a few feet absently. Taiga tried to step forward again, but Lancer continued to hold her.

"Ria-chan?" the teacher inquired.

"Someone burn that filth," the woman snarled as she continued shambling forward. "I need a bath."

"Is...are you safe to touch?" Taiga asked.

The black knight paused for a moment and turned to look at her, before spitting back into the sludge. The expression on her face was wretched as she answered. "Yes."

"Let me go!" the teacher insisted, shoving Lancer even as the woman in the white armor let her go. Taiga avoided the black sludge, but otherwise bolted stright to Ria's side and scooped up the smaller woman.

"I am not an invalid! Yakuza-brat!" Ria hissed weakly, though she made no physical attempt to resist.

"Shirou-kun, get me some towels and fresh clothes for Ria," the teacher instructed. "Bring them to the stream!"

"Caster," Rin said resolutely. "You heard her, do something about that."

"Rin?" the red-cloaked man asked as he faded into view. He continued in a cynical tone. "I see I had nothing to worry about."

"Just do it," Rin ordered.

"_That's the stuff from my dream," _Illyasviel noted to Saber.

"_Be thankful you can't see it's spiritual form, Illya," _Saber noted.

"_Actually, I think I can," _she responded as she stared at the grotesque sludge and the vile near-faces that slithered across its surface. "_You know, if they're willing to kill me..."_

_"Then they have another Vessel candidate,"_ Saber finished for her.

* * *

"Was that the curse?" Taiga asked hopefully as she worked at scrubbing Ria's skin clean. "Are you fine now?"

"No," she answered grimly. Shame was what she was feeling right now. Shame at being caught so vulnerable by so many people. Shame that she was being selfish enough to let Taiga clean her up. "It's still there."

There was guilt, too. It was getting harder to keep her and Taiga's relationship a secret.

"I'm sleeping with you tonight, Ria-chan," Taiga declared. "Or you won't get any sleep."

"You need to keep clear..."

"I don't think keeping this secret will work with the kids anymore," Taiga said with a sigh, wrapping her arms around the smaller woman. "I don't think they'll run out to ruin my career either. So don't act so guilty."

Ria grimaced as she thought about how to respond. "Don't try to cheer me up. I know how much I care about things by how bad I feel about them."

Taiga frowned. "That's not right. It should be by how good they make you feel."

"I can't feel good," the small woman answered quietly. "Back there, what you saw was all the emotions I can feel anymore."

"That can't be true, you care about people," Taiga protested.

"Caring isn't an emotion," the blonde clarified. "Neither is physical pleasure."

"You're just being difficult," Taiga assured her with a teasing laugh. Then she hugged Ria close against her and whispered seriously. "I'll make you feel good. Curse or no curse. You'll wake up one morning and be glad to see me."

Ria could only feel a gnawing doubt at the statement, but she lied anyway "I hope so."

"See it's working already," Taiga declared.

* * *

"Lancer," Shirou said, calling her over away from the others. "Is there something wrong?"

She shrugged and walked to join him, looking out into the night sky. Within the house, Sakura was cooking with their rapidly

"I know who Milady is," was the careful response.

"And that's a problem?" her Master asked.

"We're both of us stains on the same name," Lancer explained quietly.

"Neither of you are stains on any honor," Shirou protested. "You're both good people. Maybe you're a little perverted, but that's nothing worth calling you a stain on the family honor."

"You have ideals, do you not?" the white-dressed woman asked. "Strong ideals."

"You've heard some of that already," he agreed.

"I had ideals, I had responsibility and duty," Lancer noted, looking out into the darkening sky. "And I turned my back on it...so that she'd stop.." Lancer closed her eyes. "...so she'd stop hurting me."

"I had that dream, Lancer," Shirou told her. "You killed your enemy to save your rescuers."

"No, that wasn't the old me," Lancer admitted, crossing her arms. "That was this me. That wasn't duty or honor. That was love."

"What's wrong with love?" Shirou asked, placing his hands on her shoulders and feeling strange about it.

"A king can't love a person," she whispered. "They must save their love for the kingdom or else everyone will suffer. I gave up the things a king needs to have, because I couldn't take the pain. Love saved me from greater sin, and quite literally saved my life...but it doesn't change that I once gave in to despair."

Lancer glanced in the direction of the stream where Ria and Taiga still were.

"That one hasn't, her shame is entirely through no fault of her own," Lancer explained. "It's shaming."

Shirou ignored the comment about a king and just quietly hugged her. "I don't think you can compare two tragedies like that. You're not the same as Ria."

"No," Lancer said with a laugh. "We most certainly aren't the same person. Also, Shirou-kun."

"Yes?"

"We're not this far in the campaign yet," Lancer responded, voice strengthening again.

Shirou sighed and shook his head. "And where exactly are we in this campaign, anyway?"

Leaning against Shirou's shoulder, Lancer smiled. "Well, there are some rules to that..."

* * *

Rin tried to think about the logistics of the situation, about how they had four Servants (five with Ria Penn) and four Masters in this alliance now. They also had a high school teacher with a high amount of kendo training and a yakuza history, but that was minimally useful. As things stood, she didn't see how the other Masters and Servants could stand against them.

She lifted up the small piece of troubling purple glass that Caster had given her and glanced across toward where Lancer and Shirou were standing. Lancer looked upset, but knowing her it was just a ploy to...and then Shirou hugged Lancer. Rin leaped to her feet, eyes narrowing. Almost immediately, she felt a wave of dizziness that brought her back to sitting down.

"Tohsaka-senpai!" Sakura called out as she stepped away from the cooking to come back to where Rin was. "You shouldn't be up and around. Lay back down."

And this is what Rin was really trying not to think about. As soon as Sakura came up to her side, she became subdued and looked partially away. She'd been trying to avoid actually talking to Sakura ever since she woke up, because she hadn't had any idea of what she could possibly say.

"I'm not worthy of your concern," Rin whispered.

"What was that, Tohsaka-senpai?" Sakura asked calmly. "I couldn't catch it."

"Nothing," the Tohsaka magus said glumly. "You shouldn't worry yourself with me."

Sakura kept the frown off her face as Rin continued to refuse to turn and speak to her. When Assassin had told her about what Rin had done, she had had a childish fantasy of Rin giving her some sort of tear felt apology. Instead the girl was now ignoring her more entirely, even avoiding looking at her. The envy and hatred had started to rise again until she'd heard Rin deprecate herself just now. Still, this flavor of avoiding attention was no more to her taste than when she had thought Rin simply didn't think about her.

The purple haired girl glanced over toward Lancer and Shirou, oddly not feeling any jealousy at the sight. In fact, a slightly wicked thought occurred to her as she bent forward innocently.

"By the way, Tohsaka-senpai," Sakura noted. "Did anything happen between you and Lancer?"

Rin's eyes widened and her face whipped over to look into Sakura's wide-eyed innocent expression. Her mouth opened as she lifted one finger. Then her mouth closed and she lowered her hand weakly. "Uh...uhh...uh...wh...why do ask that, Sakura?"

"I was curious what she meant by the next stage of the campaign," Sakura noted enjoying watching Rin squirm as she tried to figure out what she should do. Amusingly enough, simply ignoring the rules didn't seem to be coming to her mind at all. At least not going by the way she was prevaricating. "So, did something happen?"

There was a slight flush growing in Rin's cheeks now.

"Why would I want to do something like that with her?!" Rin protested, crossing her arms in a pout of desperation.

"Something like what?" Sakura pressed, blinking innocently.

Rin stuck her nose in the air and closed her eyes. "If you must know...I...I, can sh...shooow you."

"All right, go ahead and show me," the purple-haired magus returned.

Hesitantly, looking around to see if anybody was watching, Rin slowly leaned over and gave Sakura a quick kiss on the lips. "No...now, there are some rules if Shirou..."

"I know," Sakura answered.

Rin blinked. "You...know?" The Tohsaka girl thought for a moment and then pointed at Sakura suspiciously. "Did something happen between you and Lancer?"

"Do you want me to show you?" her sister asked.

Rin blinked several times as a tell tale trickle of blood leaked from her nose which she immediately wiped away. "Show...me?"

"All right," the purple-haired girl said, leaning forward to give a somewhat more firm kiss to Rin and then pulling back.

"I'm going to kill Lancer," Rin growled, narrowing her eyes toward the Servant.

"Dinner and rest first," Sakura insisted.

The purple haired girl smiled. For once, her sister had really looked at her.

* * *

_Okay. I think from here, I start killing important people finally._

_Shinji: Hey!_

_I'm not even sure you qualify as people, actually._

_Also, some commentary as to Shirou's ideals, since there was a review regarding that._

_Major difference, canon Shirou wants to be a hero to feel the happiness he saw. This Shirou, thanks to Ria/Saber, doesn't expect happiness to come from being a hero. He thoroughly believes what Ria says about being a hero as the same as being cursed. But, he's of the opinion that its better him than someone else._


	8. Chapter 8

Kotomine Kirei looked towards the smouldering remains of the church.

Bazett with her runic magic had been a much more dangerous foe than Rin Tohsaka. Even with her missing arm, she'd pressed him hard. The entire time, she'd kept on the offensive without slowing up once. It was clearly to compensate for her handicap, and it spoke very well for her as to how quickly she'd adapted to that given their last contact wasn't too long ago. On the same day that she had been supposed to summon, actually.

The fight had proven to Kirei that his peak was past. The power, speed and technique he'd had in the Fourth War had faded over the past ten years. He was still far more dangerous than most people, and he'd managed to weather Bazett's assault and break contact. He'd have moved to his own offensive if the red-head hadn't set that blaze and used it to cover her retreat.

"This seems an oversight, Kirei," a man's voice noted from his side. "Letting them all die like that."

He was speaking of the orphans, of course, and not in any charitable fashion. Bazett's fire had probably been the kindest thing that the orphans had experienced in the last ten years. However, the man that was speaking had had a vested interest in the continued...existence of those souls. They had been feeding prana into him for the last ten years.

"We'll simply have to acquire a new fuel source for you," the corrupted priest commented. "We have another more pressing problem, Gilgamesh"

"Really?" the King of Heroes asked. "And what might that be?"

"One of the Masters came by today asking if the Grail might be cursed," Kirei explained. "Our arsonist allowed her to escape."

"You've had a productively incompetent day then," Gilgamesh snorted. "What does one rogue Master matter? Instead let's focus instead on how you're going to replace your sacrifice to me."

"I know of a place," Kirei confirmed as he looked toward the rising sun.

* * *

Whispers and darkness surrounded her as she took another steps. Each step she took was laborious, as if the darkness was clinging to her legs and arms, trying to drag her downward. No, rather, something was clinging to the darkness. The darkness was part of her somehow, and it poured off her like a ghost's hair.

All around her, the air stank. Feces swirled with blood and the pungent odor of fear-streaked urine. Somewhere, at least one body was being stripped clean of the worms that writhed below her. Now that she was here, her eyes stared forward blankly into the darkness. There was no sense having fear when the dream had already started again.

There was something different, however. She was climbing. At some point, she had turned around and started taking the steps up the stairs that the fetid darkness hid. Somewhere above her, there was a destination.

She couldn't even seen it yet, but she still knew it was there. A place where the only darkness that would follow was sacred. She took another step.

* * *

When the dream had first started, she'd thought she was seeing Caster's field of swords again. Everything had been darker, however, and when she had started to move closer to the first blade she'd seen stuck in the ground, it was nothing more than her own Azoth Dagger. From that point, as she walked and the fog of incense cleared, what she found were stacks of books punctuated only occasionally by other things such as ritual tools or gems.

A brief glimpse had shown notes on magecraft that she recognized as her own. She even recognized the book now that she thought of it as one of her early journals after the end of the Fourth War. As she looked through the book, the childhood inspiration that they represented came fresh to her mind, as if they had just happened. Only now she was looking at in terms of everything else that she had learned since then.

Looking up and onward, she had stepped to the next batch of notes and the next, automatically and instinctively following the trains of her research and then cross referencing it. This is what she had done for the past ten years. Research, experiment, train and prepare.

She'd left her friends behind, maintaining only superficial contacts necessary for her cover. There was nothing odd about that for a magus though. The growth of knowledge was all the growth that a magus needed. So her eyes shouldn't be lingering on the barren ground as she moved from one book to the next. The fact that she couldn't see more than ten feet in the incense filled dimness, enough to see the nearest stacks of books or ritual tools, shouldn't have bothered her.

A magus was human in many ways, but they were fundamentally a different brand of existence from the common man. This perfection of magecraft she wandered through should have been her haven.

There shouldn't be tears rolling down her cheeks as she stepped to the top of a rise. She shouldn't be wanting to scream and not know why.

She stepped up to the top of a rise, she looked down to see an ancient roll of parchment upon which the blueprints that had been entrusted to her family sat, waiting for her to grasp what they were for.

The magus started to bend down to look it over and stopped, glancing up and out toward the horizon where a glimmer of sharp white light spilled out over dozens of stacks left across the fruitless ground.

* * *

Shirou had had a few dreams now, and from what he could tell, he wasn't seeing much of Ria's past at all. He'd mostly been watching Lancer's life and dealing with the vague, anonymous forms of the people in her life. Whoever they were, they had cared for her and with them she'd moved from the broken wreck she'd been into the flirty, vivacious woman she was currently. There were images of a series of battles in a city that looked far too modern. Magi and others battling in teams as they attempted to dismantle something that had been built around the town long before. After that, there was another battle in another time facing ghoulish undead things. At some point, she'd recovered her spear and started using it rather than her sword, the better to keep who she was secret and conserve prana as well.

He still wasn't to the end of her life, which is why it surprised him that the dream he had tonight proved to be different.

That field of swords stretched out in front of him and he walked through it. In the air above, massive gears turned through the air as ash drifted down around him. He continued walking, to him, there was a clear path formed by the swords stuck into the ground leading higher up toward the hill he could see in the distance.

Despite the unhurried stride that he seemed to walk at, the terrain passed by quickly. His eye kept drifting to the innumerable works of art that he could see around him. Some of them were indistinct, but others he recognized from his walk through Tohsaka's house and the field from the previous night. He saw them and could recognize names and tell the stories of the weapons as he passed each of them.

Before he knew it, he was climbing up to the precipice of the hill and looking at a beautiful blue and gold sheath that he had never seen before and yet recognized instantly. Leaning down, he started to reach for the sheath when his eyes caught sight of an open door standing miles distant.

* * *

More weight poured down into her, dozens of distinct drops of joining the growing pool that was forming within the circle of her arms. Her hands were interlocked out ahead of her, allowing her to look down into the swirling lights. She didn't have any question what this was. After all, there was only one thing she'd been obsessed with more than this in the last ten years. She should have been distracted from this though. There were other things to worry about.

Her eyes peered down into the multi-colored swirl of souls, looking for whichever it was that had brought those memories the night before. There had been someone new coming in at the time and she tried to duplicate whatever had happened that let her see his memories. Idly, she wondered about reaching out to touch one of the souls, but her hands wouldn't come apart.

The only thing she could do was to bow her head downward and tip it into the flow. Once again, she thought back to those stories about the little boy wizard. They had so much wrong with magic, but it was still an amusing read and this reminded her of that memory basin thing.

Her hair touched to the edge of the collected souls first, the white strands floating outward, occasionally dipping under the surface. Her eyes came close to the edge when she stopped and watched as something black and disgusting pushed to the top and then sank back down. Her mind immediately recalled the sludge that the black-knight had vomited up just before everyone had gone to bed.

Narrowing her eyes, she felt her perception move down into the tiny pool of souls and towards the bottom of her cup with its invisible sides. She caught sight of the black fleck and followed it down through something like a funnel and felt herself easing out of the neck of. The image of her body folding forward into the circle of her arms and her head popping out of the end of a wine-glass flute no thicker than a drinking straw occurred to her, but was immediately set aside as she looked down at what lay below her.

It was like an ocean of filth, sitting down there waiting for her and these other souls to slip down into it.

It occurred to her, that she had to get past that ocean somehow.

* * *

When morning came, the sleeping situation proved to be somewhat...complicated.

Shirou woke up the first of the humans, or near humans in the case of his sister, and saw the shock of purple hair from the previous morning on one side. He hadn't gone to sleep with Sakura there, so she must have snuck in at some point. Her hand was again holding tight to a bundle of his t-shirt.

On the other side of him was the bandaged head of Rin Tohsaka using him as a sort of pillow with the rest of her body was spread out. Apparently she was an active sleeper. Idly, he hoped she used a futon in her house, or else he expected that she ended up falling out of bed in her sleep a lot. That made him suddenly concerned and he tried to get a look to see if she had strained herself at all, which was when he realized that while Rin was comfortably using his chest as a pillow, there was another body pressed against that side of him.

With one arm trapped under Tohsaka, and the other under Sakura, he found it difficult to rise himself up far enough to see who that third person was. But given where Tohsaka was, they had to be rather short, which left one likely suspect.

Shirou sighed and tossed his head back, which was when he caught sight of Lancer sleeping against the wall just behind his head rather than her usual spot half-way across the dojo.

Between the four of them, at the moment, Shirou expected that the one with the least innocent in the way of motives was the college-aged homonculus with the appearance of a near-teen child.

The arm under Rin was the easiest to free up, though that resulted in the dark-haired girl rolling over and moving down to his stomach. He couldn't see it, but it also meant putting her chest into Illyasviel's face. It was only when the small girl started making muffled noises and struggling out from under the Tohsaka magus that Shirou realized what had happened.

At some point, the little girl pushed her hand into Rin's bruised stomach and the magus snapped awake drawing a sharp breath in at the pain. She reacted, pushing herself up, which inadvertently brought her hand down into Shirou's groin, causing the young man snap up which had Rin folded up between his legs and chest even as Sakura woke up in surprise and clutched tighter to her hand hold on Shirou's shirt. A ripping sound came as she found herself toppled to the ground next to Shirou, staring at the torn segment of Shirou's shirt blankly in her hand.

"What are you doing to my brother, Tohsaka?" Illya demanded poutingly.

Which was when Rin realized she was currently mashing something rather sensitive under her hand. Then the magus looked up to see Shirou's bare chest and "eeped" before pushing Shirou and sitting up, trying not to hyperventilate.

In his move to steady himself, Shirou's hand snapped back and found something soft and round. Glancing back, he found his hand clutching one of Sakura's breasts. The purple-haired girl likewise stared in shock and surprise, a flush building over her cheeks.

"Ack! Sorry!" Shirou shouted, stumbling back and colliding with Lancer as he fell into her abdomen.

The blonde Servant's eyes snapped open as she stood in a hurry, spilling Shirou forward as she frantically stepped away wiggling as if she thought someone had dropped a rat or a bunch of bugs on her. The uncharacteristic act brought Sakura, Shirou and Rin's attention to the Servant as Lancer realized what...who...had just fallen on her.

"Ah," Lancer commented slowly. "Please tell me I did not just lose a rather prime chance to deliver some choice innuendo."

"What's all the noise this early?" Taiga asked as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

* * *

"The church is burned to the ground," Sakura said quietly. "Assassin says she found dozens of bodies within the basement."

"I'm still looking for Archer's lair," Rin noted. "But I've got a couple of possibilities. Starting with some hotels."

"Why hotels?" Shirou asked.

"His choice of targets is rather hap-hazard," Caster explained. "We think he is primarily striking targets at random from firing perches his Master is finding from wherever they're hiding."

"Likely the Einzbern is moving into the Castle now," Illya sighed. "They'll have access to parts of the bounded field that I didn't, though."

"It would perhaps be best to lure them out to attack us then," Saber agreed.

"There is the temple," the black knight noted, watching the teenagers carefully as she pointed to the map. "It is a favorable position for certain magecraft."

"Oh that place," Illya noted. "If we hadn't already had the castle, we might have tried setting up there ourselves. It's a bit closer to the city than we are at least."

"Were," Saber noted helpfully, drawing a pout from the tiny white-haired magus.

"At the very least, we can check out this temple and then move on if there's nothing there," Lancer said with a shrug.

"Then we should..." the woman winced as she stood up.

"Are you going to be okay for this?" Shirou asked seriously. "Honestly?"

"You don't have a command seal for me, Shirou," the black knight noted darkly.

"Maybe it would be best if you and Tohsaka-chan were to remain behind," Lancer added.

"Eh?" the named magus asked.

"We need to get some more food as well," Taiga noted, drawing a sharp glare from her lover. "Well, we do."

"I will be there to make sure Shirou is safe," Ria protested.

"It doesn't look like your body is completely recovered from the episode you suffered last night," Caster noted coolly. "Have you experienced this before?"

Ria growled but didn't speak, the answer obvious in her dissatisfaction.

"And how long did it take to recover the last time?" Caster continued.

Ria slowly sat down, gritting her teeth. "I concede that a full recovery shall take some more time, but I am able to defend myself."

"I suspect the wielder of that sword knows the value in patience," Saber commented sagely.

"You've said it yourself," Caster added cynically, "you're a flesh and blood creature now. Sustaining the Noble Phantasm so that you can effectively threaten Heroic Spirits must be a burden on your prana. In your current state can you do more than defend yourself without worsening your condition?"

The fingers of Ria's hand curled as she rose back to a crouch, clearly thinking about summoning the blackened Excalibur. The words were cutting, however. There was a very real chance that she couldn't sustain her Noble Phantasm enough to actually cut a Heroic Spirit right now.

She was still recovering prana and consciously directing it to repair what the curse had damaged. Had someone looked into her body, they'd probably find that several of her internal organs seemed on the verge of failing. Which was actually an improvement from last night, when several had failed.

A hand on her shoulder broke the knight's growling frozen status and she glanced irritably toward the teacher before slowly sitting down. "You may have a point."

"And why was I included in this?" Rin asked, crossing her arms, she flinched as Ria turned to glare at her.

"Is she still concussed?" Lancer asked, pointing at Rin and looking to Taiga.

"I'm perfectly fine," Rin protested weakly as she tried to inch away from the black knight.

* * *

"Sakura..." Rin said quietly.

"Yes, Tohsaka-senpai?" the purple-haired girl asked casually. "Do you need something?"

The name that Sakura was still using for her had always hurt the few times Rin had allowed them to interact, but right now it was even worse. The magus closed her mouth and stared down at the floor boards as she tried to figure out what to say.

"...what is Emiya-kun to you?" Rin asked finally.

Sakura's disappointment did not show on her face, instead she blushed in an apparent display of shyness. It was true to a point, Shirou gave her a taste of something she couldn't really name and those feelings affected her in strange, pleasant ways. Lancer had been likewise since coming into her life. However, Sakura was long over an embarrassment with carnal desires. More than that, she was past the point of being disgusted by them. They were a sort of standard part of her existence actually, a symptom of the worms within her ramping up the sensations and feeding on them.

Sakura'd had sexual fantasies about everyone that she'd ever met and the fantasies regarding Rin were the oldest and had gone through the most changes.

"Senpai is someone I will spend the rest of my life taking care of," Sakura answered seriously.

That was a novel fantasy. Sure, sexuality held little intimacy for her, Assassin had so far been her first and only consenting sexual experience, and the first time she'd enjoyed it more than physically. But the idea of living her life at Shirou's side, sharing his thoughts, supporting him, being supported by him. That fantasy of a daily life gave her a charge that would normally have been associated with sexuality for other people.

Her true fantasy for Rin was just as poignant. To be looked at, to be acknowledged. She was closer than ever to that fantasy. Rin loved her. Rin had killed to avenge her. Even now, her elder sister was talking to her. But she wasn't there yet. Tohsaka wasn't looking at her, Tohsaka was looking at her own failures. The Sakura in her sister's eyes was still the little girl that she'd lost contact with ten years ago. The defiled thing speaking to her now was not something in Rin's mind.

Accomplishing either of the two would be heaven for her.

"What is he to you, Tohsaka-senpai?" Sakura asked, coming over to sit by Rin.

"He's...he's nothing to me!" Rin protested looking away. "He's an idiot. He just assumes the best of people without thinking about what they could do to him with that trust. He just...does stuff, without pausing to think about it...I..."

Rin was blushing furiously as she tried to hide her face by turning it aside. Sakura wasn't fooled. Even if she hadn't had as much interaction with Shirou as the purple-haired girl, Rin was clearly smitten.

"What about Lancer?" Sakura asked, shifting closer.

"Sh...she's a pervert! You can't seriously be asking if I have any feelings for her!" Rin protested then she continued quieter. "She's going to be gone when we're finished in any case."

Sakura nodded and answered her own question. "I think she's someone that found something pure out of corruption. I hope to find the same thing."

"You want to seduce a bunch of people into having sex with you?" Rin asked sharply.

Sakura turned to Rin with a blank expression. Maybe it was time to show her sister something of what was truly within her.

"Is that what you think she's doing?" Sakura asked as she leaned forward and pressed her face close to Rin's.

The other girl leaned back, blushing brighter than ever. Rin pushed back to supporting herself on her arms as Sakura continued to crawl forward on all fours until the elder sister couldn't bend her arms much further back and Sakura slowly lowered herself down, staring relentlessly into Rin's eyes with her blank expression. Then she lowered herself to lick at Rin's neck, sending a shiver through the black-haired girl's body.

"This is seduction, Tohsaka-senpai," Sakura whispered as she pulled the other girl's arms out from under her. causing Rin to fall to her back with her younger sister holding her arms and their bodies pressed together. "If Lancer did this we'd be little bitches in heat for her in minutes."

"I am not a..." Rin was interrupted as Sakura kissed her firmly, slipping her tongue into Rin's mouth. It was a second later when Sakura pulled away that the elder girl realized that she hadn't hesitated to respond in kind. Then a hand clutched her throat under her chin.

"I want to take you, Tohsaka-senpai," the purple-haired girl said tonelessly. "I want to make you mine, right now."

Slowly, the hand released Rin's throat and Sakura shakily pulled away, crawling backwards with her eyes closed until she stopped some ten feet away from the other magus, breathing heavily and shoulders shaking. Purposefully she sat down and held herself.

Rin sat up herself and composed herself before directing a sharp look toward Sakura. She looked angry, but flustered was closer to the truth.

"Why did you stop?" the elder magus asked. "Are you worried that Penn and Fujimura will be back from shopping soon? Or Assassin back from scouting? Because they'll be a couple of hours yet."

Sakura shook her head, eyes still closed. "Not this way. Lancer's way is better."

"Maybe you should go through with it," an older voice noted with a cynically amused tone.

"Grandfather!?" Sakura gasped, turning toward the voice.

Rin immediately stood up, ignoring the lingering pain that hadn't yet been healed by either magic or time, and darted across to get between Sakura and the withered, black-eyed old man that had appeared in the doorway of the rundown dojo.

"Stay away from her!" Rin called out, pointing a finger towards the older man. "How the hell did you find us?"

"Now, Sakura-chan," Zouken said, ignoring Rin. "You knew you couldn't hide from me. Why don't you go ahead and finish what you started?"

Sakura whimpered in response as she hesitated.

"Stop talking to her!" Rin shouted as she unleashed a gandr. The spell struck the withered old man's shoulder, though the old magus didn't seem to notice the impact at all. Rin's eyes tracked toward the small forms of what seemed to be worms drop to the ground from out of Zouken's sleeve.

The old man started walking closer and speaking. "Now, now, Sakura. We've had enough of this little game of yours. Time to put away this running away fantasy and come back home. So, finish what you started like a good little girl."

"I...I..." Sakura started to say as she stood up behind Rin, standing close behind the girl.

"She's not going back to you," Rin declared as she reached into her jacket pocket for a handful of gems. "So go to hell!"

The elder of the girls flinched in disgust as the gems exploded, sending the body in front of her into a shower of worms, leaving behind a patronizingly smiling head to stare at Rin from up on the floor. Behind her Sakura started gasping in pain while the worms, most of them merely scattered rather than killed, started flowing together next to the head.

"Now, that's not a way to treat the elderly," Zouken said with a laugh as his body started to come back together.

A swarm of of buzzing wasps appeared and launched out for the two girls as Rin grabbed Sakura and pulled her out of the dojo.

"_Caster!" _Rin shouted telepathically.

A moment later, the red-cloaked former of her Servant had appeared between her and the attacking insects. Zouken frowned a moment before a sword appeared in Caster's hand. As he slashed outward, a small wave of energy tore through the insects and the walking pile of worms. In the wake, there was simply a pile of ash.

"Are you all right, Rin?" Caster asked.

"I'm fine," she responded sharply, turning to look at Sakura behind and seeing that her sister was still shuddering and breathing heavily. "Damn it! Whatever he did still has her."

* * *

"I'm heading back to the temple," Rider said into the phone. "We had no incidents to speak of here so I don't think Archer has tracked down my last job yet."

The woman was dressed in a waitress uniform, washing her hands as she talked on the phone, thinking back to what she'd had to tell her other employers. She'd explained it off as a stalker that she was trying to avoid, and that was true enough. They'd made promises of protection and helping her out of course, but she ignored them. Regardless of how things turned out, she'd not have been able to stay long in any case.

"Really? I'm sure that boy will be glad to get back to his studies," she commented before continuing as she gave an anticipatory smile. "I'll see you there tonight then."

She walked to the back of the restaurant and the staff lockers to change into her riding clothes before moving out to her scooter. Moments later she was out in the streets and driving in and out of traffic on her wonderful little scooter. The city passed by her in a blur of intermixing streams of light. Magecraft may have weakened compared her time, but cities had become quite beautiful and the life of humans was rather peaceful compared to what she knew.

It would have been nice to have been born in this era.

She turned off the main road and onto the narrow stretch leading to the temple's stairs. Eventually, that road came to an end in a little parking area in front of the tall temple steps. She smiled to see Kuzuki's car there, but she didn't stop. Instead she drove into the woods on the side of the steps, finding the line she'd been using the past weeks to weave between the obstacles on the way up to the hill. It should have been impossible, but given the enhancements that came with the Rider class.

Rider stopped cold not even half way up the hill and stared up toward the top of it with a growing sense of unease. The bounded field she'd set up was broken, collapsed actually. Granted, she'd made it weak due to her limits, but that didn't change the fact that circumstances within the temple had changed enough that her defenses had fallen apart.

Cautiously she set her scooter off to the side and set the helmet against it with her backpack. Slowly she moved up through the woods on foot coming up to the gate. Which was when she heard the sound of the magecraft being worked ahead. It was a horrendous wail of pain which wouldn't have been shocking to her normally. In her own life, she'd occasionally used spells that made a similar sound, after all. What concerned her was that her darling was here somewhere and that another of her places had been assaulted.

Sneaking around through the gate, she noted blood spatters in the courtyard. Frowning she reached out to sense where her Master was and followed the pull on her senses through the shadows across to the entrance into the main building of the temple. She materialized her robes and pulled the hood over her face before finding an out of the way place to sit and begun scrying deeper into the building.

It didn't take her long to find where everybody had been taken.

Under the darkness of her robes, her eyes widened and she stood up rapidly, mouth hanging open as tears started working down her face. She stood up and stepped back away from the building, uncertain what to do.

This is the point where she would betray those around her. The inevitable moment where she would choose her own desires over what was best for her allies. Her heart thumped hard in her chest as she considered what to do, what she could do. The power below her was out of her league, even if she'd had her full strength. Logically speaking, she should just turn around a flee now, leave behind the temple and her darling.

She had never enjoyed her betrayals, never wanted them or sought them. They had been forced on her by the Gods. It wasn't like she'd never done anything like it. The death of her brother, the death of Jason's enemy, the death of her rival and her own children, all the people that she'd killed while serving in the court of King Aegeus until Theseus drove her away. They had all died in unnaturally cruel ways that rivaled or surpassed what was going on below.

At least they had died.

Rider hesitated, thinking about the welcome that she had enjoyed here, even from those that objected to having a woman stay within the temple. She thought of Kuzuki's true kindness towards her. Swallowing, she started to take a step forward.

"You!" a voice declared from behind her.

Rider turned around and caught sight of the furious face of Lancer boring through her as the white-armored knight started to surge forward. Her spear and armor came into being as she ran.

"Lancer, wait!" the young man behind the knight shouted.

Rider could see others too, including a familiar giant of a man who had sailed with her first, tragically false, love. She winced and started to dodge to the side and was barely making it to other side of the entrance when the ground seemed to erupt around them forcing Lancer to dodge aside and lose track of her original target.

"Well, well," Gilgamesh said with a smile as he climbed out of the hole, wearing his brilliant golden armor. "And I was just getting moved in."

Everyone stared at the man who radiated a sensation of sheer power and glory.


	9. Chapter 9

Ria was embarrassed by how weak she felt at the moment. Her instinct told her that trouble would be coming now and there was nothing she could do about it. She felt very much like she imagined a broken sword would feel. It wasn't the first time nor the most intensely that she'd felt this emotion.

"It'll be okay," Taiga said as they pushed the cart of food to the counter. "They're all strong, aren't they?"

"You know how hard it is to learn a new style, Taiga," the former Servant commented. "That extends to command and teamwork. To now, Shirou, Lancer and I have been building our style. We are Shirou's two weapons, but he is going into a possible battle with only one of us."

"Like fighting niten with with one sword," Taiga noted, nodding.

"Exactly like that," Ria agreed. "We don't have enough people to carry all of this."

A flash of purple from the entrance, drew Ria's attention there. Following the look, Taiga also glanced in that direction and grimaced as she saw Assassin walking into the market perfectly visible. "What's _she _doing here?"

Ria wasn't particularly certain what exactly had happened between Taiga and Assassin, but whatever it was, she was wondering the same thing. The blind-folded woman raised something of a stir as she strode through the market unconcerned with the people watching and came right up to where Ria and Taiga were.

"Something is happening at the dojo," she said. "Sakura is in pain. I can't get her to respond to me."

Ria grimaced as she looked at the food they had piled in the cart. "We'll have to come back to this later."

* * *

Gilgamesh looked around the courtyard at the people that come to invade the new place he had just claimed. Perhaps he'd been a little bit impatient in getting to the commotion when he'd destroyed the ceiling above him for the dramatic appearance. There were three Servants present, but one had gotten out of sight pretty soon after he had come up. In addition, he saw two Masters.

All in all, he wasn't impressed, merely amused.

"I'd give you this moment to turn around and leave, but this actually makes things easier for me," he said.

Lancer leaped back several feet, spear at the ready. Looking toward her, Gilgamesh blinked as he noted the shape of her face and her coloring. It looked almost like the woman from the Fourth War, that remarkably idealistic woman that would be his. However, the armor, the weapon and even her bearing were different. This woman lacked that defiance that been such an appealing characteristic of the woman he remembered. Perseverance, perhaps, but there was a subtle difference.

"That's always a pleasant thing," Saber said stepping forward and circling out towards a flanking position with Lancer.

As he did, he eyed the woman's spear, remembering how hard it had hit him before. That was a weapon that had been capable of taking several of his lives in one shot. There weren't many weapons that could do that. A weapon like that might just be enough to damage that golden armor of his.

Lancer eyed the newcomer cautiously, aware of a slight tremor in her stance as the golden-armored figure looked her over. She had no specific memories of course, but his very countenance and attitude seemed to dredge up a feeling she'd mostly associated with Rider. With that feeling she had an image of a swarm of swords rather like what she'd seen Caster do a couple of times already.

"I suppose this makes things easier for us as well," Lancer commented, shifting her spear. "I apologize sir, but I find you oddly familiar. I don't suppose you'd favor us with confirming your identity?"

Giglamesh frowned at the question as a pair of great gates pulled open behind him. Out of the golden glow of the Gates of Babylon, tips of multiple spears, swords and other weapons started to appear. From where he stood, Shirou recognized several of the same weapons that had appeared in that field of swords he'd dreamed about last night.

"You'll have to forgive her," Saber noted calmly. "Her memory was not treated well by the summoning. Who wouldn't recognize the first of all heroes, King of Heroes, Gilgamesh."

"Oh, you have a charming tongue for a brute," the arrogant ancient king responded. "Tell me more. It would be pleasant to hear for someone that appreciates me before we end this farce."

"Well, the stories all speak of how the fifth king of Uruk," Saber began, noting a twitch and growl from his enemy as he was named as being not the first, "abused the position he was born to, oppressing his people so badly that they prayed to the Gods to ease their suffering at his wretched hands."

The man's expression grew murderous as Saber continued talking. Gilgamesh almost completely lost track of the Masters and the other Servant as he focused on Saber. A blade ripped out of the Gates of Babylon slashing through the air to be deflected by Saber's xiphos.

"_Can your brother create Rho Aias again, Illya?" _the giant asked. "The gods created a wild man to be the wastrel king's boon companion and the king sent a woman to tame this wild man for him."

Illya nodded and moved to Shirou's side, whispering.

Another several swords rained down on Saber's position as the big man dodged out of the way.

"Be quiet," Gilgamesh demanded. "Cease these lies!"

"And then, when his friend died," Saber noted. "He whined and cried and worried not for his friend, but for his own mortality. Seeking to find eternal life for himself, he abandoned his responsibilities and ultimately failed."

"Enough!" Gilgamesh shouted angrily as he unleashed tide of blades to rain down on Saber, only to slam into a large purple flower and scatter across the courtyard.

"Rhongomyniad!" a shout came from behind then as a spear blade struck down into his back.

The King of Heroes eyes widened as he was thrown to the ground and the weight of the spear cracked his armor.

Shirou had felt the drain when he'd created the shield that was currently protecting Saber. Now as Gilgamesh looked up toward Lancer and directed his ire at her, he repeated the act and a second shield appeared to shield the blonde woman.

"Don't over do it, brother," Illya warned sharply.

As she spoke, Saber stepped around the shield and called out as Lancer danced away from where Gilgamesh was standing up. "Nine Lives: Hundred Heads Shooter!"

The blonde man grimaced as the barrage of simultaneous hits slammed into him. There were no real first strike, no real last strike, but if there had been a first strike it would have landed in the places that Rhongomyniad had already damaged the golden armor.

"You mongrels dare to damage my treasures!?" Gilgamesh roared as he shrugged off the remains of his armor.

A twisting series of chains poured out of the Gates and wrapped around Saber's body holding him tight. Saber grimaced as he found the chains holding his semi-divine body tight. Lancer slashed in, darting around one of the projected Rho Aias's and stabbed in with her spear.

Gilgamesh haphazardly grabbed one of his many swords and used it to block the spear up high before he lashed out again at Lancer. The sword was interrupted by her spear, though the strength of the blow sent her stumbling aside and left her open as another attack sliced through her shoulder.

Struggling, Saber tried to get out of the path of a new wave of blades. Some of the less treasures simply bounced off of his skin, but one and then another and another blades stabbed into him. To the side, the shield that had first protected him shattered and covered the ground in a scattering of purple glass like crystals.

"Saber!" Illya gasped. "Brother! What are you doing?!"

Beside her, Shirou was already starting to sweat just from the two spells he had done. He was gritting his teeth silently as he remembered keeping up with Ria earlier and again reinforced his body as he ran in to where Lancer was being pressed. He recalled what he had done to make shield and repeated the process with a sword.

A two-handed European broadsword came into existence in his hand as swung in from an angle at Gilgamesh. The man turned about to block the non-descript sword that Shirou had summoned, cutting straight through the projected weapon. It gave Lancer time to slash a line across Gilgamesh's chest with her spear and slowed down his barrage against the restrained Saber.

Roaring bitterly, Gilgamesh stabbed his sword down into the ground, presenting a shockwave that forced Lancer and Shirou to fall away from him. Irritably, he turned back his attention on the man that had broken his armor. He lifted his hand, the weapons of the Gates of Babylon getting set to renew their torrent against Saber. A brief, cruel smile worked over his face.

"Argon Coin!"

Gilgamesh looked toward the sound of the voice to see a dragon-driven chariot sweeping through the air and slashing through the links of the chains binding Saber.

* * *

"Rin we need to leave," Caster told her.

"Not yet," the little magus insisted as she held Sakura's hand and feeling her forehead. "I need to handle this first."

Rin looked for a gem and started forming a healing spell in her head. Sakura gripped her hand tightly and shook her head. "Don't try it. There are..." she gasped. "Worms inside me. Grandfather will be reborn."

"Grandfather will be..." Rin repeated slowly before twisting her head about to look over to Caster and speaking in quick commanding tones. "The healing amulet you gave me...what's the real thing?"

Caster considered it what she was asking. He had returned that relic to its owner long ago and since that owner had returned to her own time, he'd had more difficulty in tracing it. However, given his current circumstances...

"I doubt we can place it within Sakura," Caster said. "It will reject her given she's already infested. Even if it could, there are only three, maybe four people currently who can use it to its fullest purpose in this time."

Rin grimaced and took a deep breath. "Then give it to me."

Sakura tried to sit up, but stopped and fell back down writhing.

"What good will that do?" Caster asked.

"If I can take the worms out of her," Rin said, "then use that to protect myself..."

"It won't work that way for you," her Servant explained calmly. "We can kill her mercifully and the worms with her."

"No!" Rin snapped angrily. "I am not giving up. This time I'm not going to be too slow. I'm going to change things this time!"

"Rin..."

"Give it to me now!" Rin demanded, "That's an order!"

The Command seal flashed on her hand and Caster frowned as he was compelled to obey the order, whether or not it was possible. He stepped forward, placing his hands on Rin's back. "Trace on."

A curious sensation filled Rin as she felt something...grow inside her and fill her with a mute sort of sensation. Caster stopped and stepped back, looking on with disapproval at this most recent development of Rin's towards the sort of foolish ideals he'd expected to find in Shirou.

"I've never tried to place this copy into someone else," he said to Rin as she kneeled there shaking and holding her chest with her free hand. "I don't know how long it will last or what effect it might have on you."

"Th...that's fine," Rin said as she moved to straddle the weakening Sakura. "Could you step outside for a moment and make sure we're not disturbed."

Caster frowned and then arched an eyebrow as he wondered why he should be surprised. In his life it had always seemed like Rin's answer to life and death situations involved the same course of action if it at all looked like there was time or opportunity.

"Indeed, I'll leave you some privacy," Caster noted as he vanished from sight.

"What are you doing?" Sakura asked as Rin hurriedly unbuttoned her school uniform.

"This is something that I read in a book once," her elder sister said with a smile. A bead of sweat worked down her forehead. "Well...twice...or more."

Rin bent down to kiss Sakura firmly and gently as her hands started working over her sister's body.

* * *

Sakura was on the stairs again, and she felt that she'd fallen back several steps. More than that, the worms had come up from the pit to get her, even now they swarmed up over her legs, rushing to devour her completely. Rin was making things worse, they were moving faster now, feeding on the carnal desires that Tohsaka was stoking within her.

The purple haired girl didn't really know what Rin was hoping to accomplish. Even if she couldn't know that the worms fed on this sort of thing, it seemed pointless. All it was going to accomplish was speeding Zouken taking over her body and killing them both. Panting, she struggled up another step, trying to shake off as many worms as she could.

Her mind drifted back to old fantasies of when she'd been thrown to the worms in reality. The deliriously she imagined her sister running down into the fetid basement like a white knight and pulling her out of this hell-hole. But it was just a fantasy, and all to often it ended with Rin being pulled in with her. She struggled up another step, honestly surprised that she still had legs within here. She honestly expected to have been rendered helpless long before now, and with Rin...distracting her, she should have been dead right now.

She took another step up and reached forward to steady herself against a higher step, staring at the stone in front of her. Only something gripped her hand firmly and pulled her upwards. Glancing up, Sakura found herself looking into Rin's eyes, her sister surrounded by an intermittent handful of shimmering motes.

"I've got you," Rin said as she pulled Sakura up and held her tight. Rin's right arm began to glow as she glared down into the depths below and silently prayed as she entwined herself with Sakura.

The slithering sound of the worms almost seemed to be laughing as they swarmed up over the two girls. Though the swarm's humor seemed to fade as worms rotted and fell away where the motes touched them.

* * *

As the dragons rushed by, striking the chains and tearing them free of Saber, they and the chariot of the Argon Coin itself were pelted by the lethal hail of Noble Phantasms streaming out of the Gates of Babylon. The entire chariot surrounded in cracking fields of supernatural force as Rider risked as much prana as she could in pushing through.

She had seconds before her magical protections vanished allowing the Argon Coin to be slammed by the stream of interrupted weapons. Rider turned the chariot on its side as she pushed forward, dragging the chains behind her, the weapons tearing into the chariot and the dragons. She turned it toward Gilgamesh then, the pained dragons roaring out as Rider allowed herself to fall out of the Noble Phantasm.

"Argon Coin, Funeral Pyre!" she shouted as the dragons, chariot and all crashed into Gilgamesh, exploding into a ball of fire, even as she tumbled back to the ground. All around her, bits of metal rained down as the chains tangled about the chariot finally shattered with its explosion.

Saber shrugged free of the broken chains as he looked past the battered witch and started forward. On the other side of the explosion, Lancer was standing up as Shirou pulled himself to his knees. Behind them Illya came running up to their backs and quietly started doing what she could to heal Shirou.

"Brother what were you thinking!?" she demanded. "Masters do not get involved in the battles in that fashion."

"Oh, we're used to that by now, Illya-chan," Lancer said with a pained smile before she turned her eyes back to the smoke.

The cloud exploded outward in a burst as Gilgamesh revealed himself, sporting burns and cuts, and face enraged as he scanned about and caught sight of Rider on the ground and snarled as he charged after her.

"You dare to break Enkidu!?" His eyes were blind with rage as he lashed out with his sword swinging at her neck. Only to have it stopped by Saber's Xiphos and his weapon turned aside. "Out of my way, you little peasant!"

"Little," Saber noted with a laugh. "Atlas was the last one to call me that."

Still, Gilgamesh was strong, very strong. He'd say inhumanly strong, but that particular adjective really didn't mean anything in this situation. After all, most of them here were inhuman in some form or another. Still, the weight behind the King of Heroes' sword was impressive, greater than his own strength.

"What care I for you and your stories, brute?!" Gilgamesh demanded angrily. His rage redirected, he failed to notice Rider pulling herself away from the melee at first. "Where do you think you're going?!"

A shower of blades erupted out of the Gates of Babylon and Rider barely had time to duck behind the still lingering Rho Aias that Shirou had summoned earlier. From her position, Illya watched and was momentarily distracted by the purple flower. This shield was lasting longer than the previous one, which itself had lasted longer than it logically should. Now it shattered, but the little homonculus wasn't certain whether it was because of Gilgamesh's barrage or that it had simply reached the natural end of its existence.

In any case it was enough for Rider to get out from under the barrage and out of the line of its fire as Gilgamesh was distracted from redirecting it by Saber making a renewed attack. Behind him, Lancer moved her eyes from Rider to Gilgamesh, hesitating just a moment and frowning as she started to circle around behind Gilgamesh's back. She jumped in stabbing outward, Gilgamesh just barely managing to dodge aside without opening himself to Saber.

"Mongrels!" he shouted, slashing backwards to drive Lancer back. "Get out of my way and die!"

"Mongrels?" Saber repeated. "I suppose that's better than a pampered hunting dog, with no skill or brains."

"You dare!" Gilgamesh shouted, turning his full attention back toward Saber again as he strode forward with strike after strike from the sword in his hands. "You dare to continue with this slander!"

Each blow was earth shattering but directed cleverly aside by the giant as he carefully stepped back.

"You were born with all advantages and squandered them," Saber lectured calmly, not letting his concern leak out in his tone. "You fight with brutal strength and confidence but no skill. You are a waste whose greatness is due to nothing of his own doing."

Roaring, Gilgamesh rushed to the Gates of Babylon and drew forth something that...wasn't a sword but was vaguely shaped like one. "I will reveal unto you the truth you cannot see for your..."

The spear tip erupted from his chest.

"And you persist in not paying attention to all your enemies," Saber noted finally.

"What is..." Gilgamesh started to say.

"Rhongomyniad!" Lancer declared sharply as she pushed her spear forward ever so slightly.

Gilgamesh's upper body exploded outward as his still living head stared in shock at the pieces of his body until everything started to fade into glittering flakes of energy.

* * *

Beside where Illya was staring at the impossibility of Shirou's Rho Aias, Shirou stood up and brought another sword to mind. A flash of movement out of the corner of his eyes turned his attention to where a tall man in a priest's uniform was coming up behind Illya. Without thinking, he brought his hands around, bringing them together and forming the sword in his mind and reality as he swung.

Kirei, saw the swing coming and barely dodged out of the way, partially redirecting the blade aside. He glanced at the weapon that had just nearly cut into him and recognized its basic lines. He looked again and watched the young man bringing the sword around again and recognized elements of the two handed style. His eyes narrowed.

Blonde, overbearing attitude.

"Boy, what relation do you have to Emiya Kiritsugu," he asked as he blocked the next strike.

"We're his children!" Illyasviel declared firmly as she backed off away from the fight.

"That man interferes even from beyond the grave," the priest declared. "Do you also seek to be a hero then?"

Shirou was quite as he brought his black sword around into a sequence of blocks from Kirei's strikes. The young man grimaced as he deflected the daggers and unarmed strikes from the older man, working to keep himself between the man and Illya. He blocked one strike and then, with a twist thrust his shoulder into his enemy's body. He raised his leg to intercept a short kick from his opponent and took another step swinging his blade in tightly to cut in close range at his dagger wielding enemy.

"It is such a pathetically self-defeating dream," Kirei noted. "To be a hero there must first be someone in danger, after all. You can't wish to be a hero without wishing for there to be destruction."

"My desire to be a hero isn't so simple," Shirou answered with a grunt of effort as he backed off again, still exchanging blows with his opponent. "I've been told again and again how cursed heroes are. I see how it's hurt people I care about. Which is why I won't let anybody else live through that if I can take that burden."

"There's still the desire for the need," Kirei noted laughing, slashing in past Shirou's guard to cut a line across his shoulder in the middle of a swing. The priest used the momentary distraction to get his shoulder under Shirou's and stab a black key into his side.

Then Kirei was distracted as across the courtyard and saw Gilgamesh exploded outward as Rhongomyniad was invoked within his body.

The black sword dropped out of Shirou's hands and he gritted his teeth as he brought his hands back toward Kirei's neck and traced a new weapon. The dagger slashed into the back of Kirei's neck and slashed outward. "No, I just know there will be a need. At least as long as we're in this world. And there will always be foes that a hero needs to cut down. Just as there will always be a hero to stand in the way."

* * *

Illya followed Rider quietly down into the hole in the temple, following her down into the underground sections of the Temple. Following this Servant might not be particularly wise on her part, but this sort of thing worked out for her brother it seemed and this woman seemed more interested in what lay ahead than Illya. It didn't take too long before they were in what was probably meant as a store room but was currently filled with bodies with various injuries and wrapped in a malevolent spell.

The homonculus recognized some of the magecraft, at least in terms of style and intent. She herself knew a way to keep a decapitated head alive indefinitely. In this case, it seemed to be more along the lines of a sort of prana collection engine. Not a fate she'd wish on just anyone. For example she'd originally only considered her brother as worthy of this particular fate. Now, she was rather thinking of the other Einzbern Master.

Rider pulled out an odd looking dagger and glanced back toward the hallway.

"You're that man's Master," she asked breathing heavily as she did. "What are you doing following me down here?"

"Well, perhaps I should thank you for saving Saber," Illya noted.

"It was a repayment, he sheltered me once," Rider explained as she cut the knife along the arm of one of the enspelled people and moved on to the next. She seemed to be looking for somebody in specific, but cutting each person she came near. "There is no thanks necessary."

"All right then," Illya noted as she watched the process curiously. As each person was cut, they seemed to be freed from the spell entrapping them, breathing easier and the expressions of pain fading. "Might you need any help?"

"How could you help me?" Rider asked, then she gasped and lunged at one of the bodies, picking him up. "Darling!"

"I could..." Illya stopped then as a wave of dizziness struck her and something heavy, very heavy, poured into her soul. A moment later, that heavy soul was joined by another soul many times greater than those civilians that had already died but still nothing compared to that first soul. She was barely cognizant then of Rider striding past her carrying the body of the man she had found.

"I could take your Seals, little girl," the Servant noted threateningly as Illya tried to stand up. "Remember that."

It was a hollow threat at best. She could take a Servant on, but given the troubles she had just with providing for herself, it would be foolish in the extreme. Best to leave the girl behind, if there were people more active in the war then she herself would be a low priority target.

* * *

Caster grimaced, and blushed, as he listened to the sounds coming from the dojo. It didn't sound good, they were getting weaker. It sounded as if all Rin had managed to do was to delay the inevitable. Eventually, Zouken was going to overwhelm them and then he'd have both his and Assassin's command seals from the two girls. He would have to do what he could to destroy the man's body before that happened.

"I'm sorry, Rin," he said with a sigh as he started to stand up. "All you've managed to do is die with her."

He stood up and started to walk back away from the dojo while tracing his bow. He drew his hand back and thought about what Noble Phantasm to use to purge Zouken from the area. Wondering if he had anything that would prevent the man from returning to the other worms he had at his house.

Before he could, he felt a blade cut down across his back, causing him to stumble forward in shock. Looking back up, Caster was surprised to see Assassin standing over him with the long curved blade of the Harpe pointed at him.

"They're not to the point of no return yet," the Servant noted darkly.

"They have no chance," Caster protested. "When they failed, you and I will fall to a Master neither of us wishes to have."

"Give them more time!" Assassin insisted.

"There is no way for..."

"What is going on here!" Ria's voice rang out and Caster's eyes widened as he looked to see Taiga and the black knight coming up the hill through the woods.

"A tantric healing ritual," Assassin called back. "I've seen it before. In ancient times."

"Tantric?" Taiga responded, blinking. "You mean as in..."

"Yes, she means that," Ria noted irritably as she came up to the seen and looked down at Caster.

"He doubts their survival," the purple haired Servant noted. "Was planning to kill them before the worms take them."

"Worms...?" Taiga asked.

"Sakura might explain later."

"We should leave them some privacy and secure the area," Ria said. "In case..."

"Actually, Arturia," Caster said, sitting up calmly. "You might be their only chance."

"What did you say?" Ria asked, turning around slowly to glare at Caster.

* * *

Rin was holding tightly to Sakura still as they were immersed. In covering and protecting her sister, Rin left herself open to the majority of the swarm. She was weakening, her father's crest was fading bit by bit as she tired and the motes surrounding them just weren't enough to whittle down the bulk of the mass of worms. She was even losing touch with what was happening with her body in the real world, and as soon as that happened, she would lose the control she needed to keep them bonded on this level.

Then they would die separately.

"Rin," Sakura whispered, "that's too much."

"No, no," Rin gasped. "This will end! I'm saving you this time!"

"It's too much," Sakura whispered. "This world won't let us be."

"I don't care what this world says!" Rin said. "If I have to make another world, I'll save you!"

Rin blinked as she suddenly felt a slight upswing of energy and the motes around her increased in number. She laughed and held Sakura tighter as the motes continued to increase in number.

"Look, Sakura," she said. "We're going to be fine, it's working!"

Sakura shook her head and pushed herself and Rin up, shaking off the worms that the suddenly increasing number of motes touched and rotted. Pushing Rin against the stone stairs, she clutched tighter as she was now the one in the most vulnerable position.

"Wh...what are you doing!" Rin demanded. "We just have to wait."

"Rin, we can't do it with just defense," Sakura whispered. "We'll have to stay in here forever...and that's impossible."

Rin paused before responding as she finally recognized the emotion under that whisper. It was anger, not resignation. Sakura's blank, emotionless face here was hiding rage, pure and simple. Rin looked into her eyes and remembered the same expression as Sakura's hand had moved to grab her throat. This time, the purple-haired girl, or at least her mental self, turned and looked over her shoulder.

The darkness around them shuddered violently.

Sheltered within the growing number of motes, Rin listened as something thrashed about outside her vision. Whatever it was, it followed Sakura's looks and slowly, the number of worms decreased until they ceased their attack all together. Regardless, Rin continued to hold tight to Sakura trying to keep her as much within the field of her Servant's relic as possible.

"I can't find any more," Sakura said, her voice no longer bland by tired and nervous. "I think we can..."

As the relief flooded her, Rin lost hold of the ritual and missed whatever else Sakura had to say before she fell back completely into her body. Physically and mentally, drained she slumped forward onto Sakura's naked body, muscles so tired it hurt. She let herself pass out then into full sleep.

"Rin!" Sakura gasped, coming out of the trance and shaking her sister. "Rin! What's wrong?"

"She's fine," another, very annoyed voice noted. "Or she will be."

Sakura blinked and looked up toward the voice and froze in panic as she saw Ria flushing bright red and looking in the other direct. The blonde woman's hand was reaching out to touch Rin's back.

"Wh...why are you in here Penn-san?" Sakura asked nervously, suddenly wishing that she still had to fight Grandfather's worms taking over her body.

* * *

Illya pulled herself out of the basement and weakly walked back to where Shirou was holding his side and being looked over by Lancer. Saber looked to her and noted her pace and manner, frowning as he considered that they had just killed a powerful Servant.

"Illya-chan!" Lancer said looking up and noting her apparent weakness as well. "Did Rider do something to you? Where is she?"

"No, I just..."

Saber whirled around then and sped forward to push Illya across the courtyard over to where Shirou and Lancer stood. As he did so, a golden bolt struck into him and he slumped to his knees as a bright glow funneled into him and he barely managed to contain the blast that the arrow should have held within his God Hand.

"Saber!" Illya gasped!

"Emiya, take care of your sister, she'll need your help," the giant said. "Now, if you'll excuse me. I have to speak to a fellow enthusiast of archery."

* * *

_So, dual-wielding Arturias allows for Rin and Sakura both living, yay! Also, I am amused by the fact that Shirou is dual-wielding Servants while taking Saber's sword style._

_I was vacillating between killing Saber and Rider here and waiting, but I still have stuff to do with Rider and as much as the notes say that Gilgamesh would beat down all the other Servants if he fought seriously...he never fights seriously. He's a big-damn screw up, from his myth to his actions in the Grail War._


	10. Chapter 10

Saber watched in the direction the arrow had come from as Shirou and Lancer left with Illyasviel. He watched for any sign that another attack was forthcoming while they moved behind the hill. As he did so, he gauged the direction of the attack as he eyed a building in the distance and let his sword shift form into a bow. He let his instincts guide him as he pulled back the string on the bow, not even watching the arrow form there. He considered carrying out the fight here, but instead started a run higher up into the hills, as he kept his eye on the skyscraper in the distance. Sure enough, a series of arrows dogged his steps as he made for higher ground himself.

He paused in his flight to take aim himself at the building in the distance.

* * *

Archer didn't know what to think for several seconds. His bolt had struck true, granted a different target had taken the hit, but it still should have obliterated the presence of that one sun standing among the others. Instead, the man's power had somehow merely become a smouldering glimmer rather than a brilliant shining beacon. This was a strange one. He'd thought that he'd seen this sun go out several times already, only to resurge again in full strength.

The other suns had gone behind the hill and out of his view. He could arch an arrow or a sun over it, perhaps, but he had no idea whether it would come down in their surrounding area. Besides, he'd rather save the suns for use against this Servant Saber. He turned to look back toward his other target and quickly shifted aside as a bolt struck through the window and stuck into the wall behind him.

"Another one," he commented to himself. "This war is filled with archers, it seems."

He returned the shot with a shaft of his own, aiming for the smouldering glow of power that was heading higher up into the hills. He smiled and drew forth a golden arrow and placing it on his string.

"Second Sun!"

* * *

"The world is scrabbling for my end it seems," Saber chuckled to himself as followed his instinct to turn aside his glance just before the bolt exploded in the air above him in a literally blinding display of light and fire.

He considered his position for a moment and whether or not to take the shot yet, but decided against it. He returned Archer's blinding shaft with a simple barbed and poisoned arrow of his own as he moved higher up the hill for a more advantageous position. Pausing again, he turned, watched for a tell tale streak and fired. In the distance, the death of a sun cascaded over the city in a light show of electromagnetic discharge as his hydra-blood dipped arrows collided with his enemy's shaft._  
_

* * *

"To see such skill in one who has the Saber class," Archer noted. "One might think that I am facing a god such as myself."

_"Ignore him, Archer," _his Master instructed. "_We only have to take his Master, not trade blows with him."_

"_It would be a mistake to let him run free," _Archer repeated.

"_Do not make me use another Command Seal," _Rayleith returned angrily.

Archer considered it and then nodded reluctantly. He could move to a new vantage point and watch for the Masters and Servants to come out of the hills again. It was quite possible that that was what Saber was trying to draw him away from.

* * *

The giant paused as he felt a driving assurance that if he didn't strike now, that it would be too late. He stepped forward, sighted along the shaft.

_"What are you doing, Saber?" _Illya asked. She sounded weak already. Heracles shook his head at this evidence of the weight of Gilgamesh's soul. In all likelihood, she would be crippled in the next few minutes by the weight of souls coming.

_"I am removing your enemies," _he responded lightly and encouragingly.

He pulled back on his shaft and directed his will towards enacting his Noble Phantasm.

"_When are you coming back?" _Illyasviel asked.

"_I'll be with you again soon, Illyasviel von Einzbern," _he promised her. _"Where you aware that was tasked to drive the chariot of the sun upon my deification?"_

"_Yes, I was. What does that have to do with anything?"_

He smiled and let fly his shaft. "Nine Lives: Hundred Heads Shooter!"

* * *

Archer started to turn away from his perch when he barely caught sight of the smouldering lump of power wink out. Had it just taken time for injuries to kill that great sun then? No, the energy wasn't simply snuffed. It was expended and now there was a rush of projectiles streaming in his direction.

He rose up his bow and set an arrow to quiver, pulling it back. "Fifth Sun!"

The bolt released outward, and struck within the oncoming barrage, erupting into a point of blackness that drew in the central bulk of the onrushing projectiles. However, this was not a simple massed bunch of arrows. It was a hundred separate projectiles released in one instant to travel one hundred separate paths and unleashed by an opponent that knew Archer's bursting effects. While the Fifth Sun drew in and crushed perhaps sixty of the barbed arrows, it could not stop them all.

Nor did he have time to run.

_"Master! C..."_

He had no more time before the shafts pierced his body from as many as thirty different directions.

* * *

Saber smiled as his bow started fading into a series of motes. Containing that attack had been too much so soon after the fight with costly fight with Gilgamesh. Once upon a time, his wife had been tricked into making him a poison cloak using blood tainted by the hydra's own venomous blood. The venom that, in a much smaller dose, had even been enough to bring down the immortal Chiron still left him capable of building his own funeral pyre over the course of a day.

Lasting long enough for a final exchange was nothing compared to that.

The alternative would have been allowing Illyasviel to suffer whatever Archer had fired. She would almost certainly be torn to pieces in that case, which would have killed him even if the blow hadn't. Lancer and Shirou would likely have not fared much better, perhaps they might have survived long enough for Archer to kill them with a second attack.

His body started to fade away then and the only thing he regretted is that this would likely incapacitate Illya.

* * *

Illya gasped within Lancer's arms and shuddered, breathing growing heavier.

"What's wrong?" Lancer asked, looking down at the girl in her arms.

"Saber," she managed to say before she closed her eyes and fell limp, barely breathing.

Shirou looked back over his shoulder as he limped along. "He didn't make it?"

Lancer frowned and adjusted how she was carrying Illya. Her eyes drifted toward the bleeding injury in Shirou's side. He was holding it right now and dealing well, but it was still a bad injury and hardly the only one that he had received in that battle. Her own injuries were comparatively light, though probably looked as severe if not worse, given that she had never had the full focus of Gilgamesh's attention throughout the fight.

Down the hill, the sound of sirens started carrying their way to the sight and they started moving again, taking to the woods to avoid attracting attention from the coming emergency workers.

* * *

Rayleith felt her connection to Archer snap out of existence and screamed out in rage as she moved to overturn the desk in her hotel suite.

"The fool!" she snapped. "The damn overconfident fool! In the end he couldn't even remove one Servant?"

Her mind raced, trying to find someway to get around this seemingly complete failure of her plans. She was essentially a first generation magus in a battle being fought by the likes of the Matou, the Tohsaka and the Einzbern and now she didn't even have her primary weapon in this fight.

"I am not going to simply let this pass!" she declared to herself.

* * *

Taiga kept her face neutral as she checked Rin's pulse again. She was probably being paranoid but it felt like it had dropped slightly.

By the time Ria had carried her down from the dojo to this rather...creepy...sword-filled house, Rin's vital signs had been pretty good, almost perfect actually. She had seemed to be simply exhausted and needing rest. The reason for that exhaustion had put a mildly disapproving flush on Taiga's face originally.

The very idea of someone pushing them so hard in love making that they remained passed out for hours afterwards was...intriguing. Logically, it had been explained to her that was really more of a sort of exorcism and had involved significantly more effort and risk than just sex...but still...intriguing.

"Fujimura-sensei?" Sakura asked, looking downcast as she looked into the room.

Taiga turned around and looked to her, putting a smile on her face as she looked toward the youngest of her present students. "Ahh, Sakura. You shouldn't be up."

"Is Tohsaka-senpai going to be all right?" she asked in a low tone of voice.

"I sure she just needs some rest after the whole sexorcism thing," Taiga said, trying and failing to be delicate.

Sakura blushed and then nodded. Rin had taken the bulk of the damage during the ordeal in her mind. She would need more rest than Sakura did. Though from the conversation it sounded as if she'd temporarily had a healing relic implanted in her for a time, so she'd thought Rin would be better by now.

"Uhh...Sensei, about the..." Sakura fumbled over her words.

"Don't worry about it," Taiga said, gritting her teeth with each word. "I won't be telling anyone at school."

"Is it...all right?" Sakura wondered.

"No, no, I know there was a really good reason for it," the teacher noted. "So, I'm completely fine with the fact that you're still in high school and having sex...in this case."

Sakura nodded, the woman didn't sound at all fine with it. "So that's not the reason my room is all the way across the house?"

"Oh don't be silly," Taiga commented, escorting Sakura out of the room. "Now, let's get you back to your room and lie you down for the night,"

* * *

Rider did not travel that far before she found a place to pull off with her scooter and get out of sight. Carrying Souichirou's unconscious form inside a small but heavily wooded park, she laid him out. He had not fallen easily. Even if Gilgamesh and that priest had made sure to

"Do that and you'll likely use the last of your prana," a woman's voice noted.

Rider twisted to stare at this new person and saw a red-headed woman missing her left arm. "A Master who lost her Servant then?"

"Bazett Fraga McRemitz," the woman introduced herself as she stepped forward. "I have a proposal for you."

"Would this proposal involve becoming your Servant?" she asked.

"First things first," Bazett noted. "Let me heal the man there for you."

* * *

Ria frowned as Lancer laid Illya down on the floor. She looked up then toward where Shirou and Lancer both displayed the signs of being injured. They both had a rate of self-healing so likely the visible injuries were gone by now, but there could still be some internal damage that had yet to heal. Depending on the nature of what had injured them in the first place.

"We're not sure what's wrong," Shirou said, looking around at the obvious signs of a fight at the dojo. Most likely they weren't staying here long.

"She was alone with Rider at some point during the battle," Lancer noted suspiciously.

"No, I know what this is," the black knight noted. "I thought it interesting she never asked us about what happened to her mother..."

"What happened to her mother?" Shirou asked.

"She was the Vessel for the Grail," Ria explained grimly. "And now its Illyasviel. For her to be in this state, multiple Servants would have to have died."

"Saber fell to Archer," Lancer noted with quiet respect. "And we took down one calling himself Gilgamesh. He felt familiar."

At the name, Ria turned harshly to look at Lancer.

"Gilgamesh! He was in the Fourth War," the woman said quickly. "He was a Servant with a ridiculous amount of power. Perhaps his and Saber's death alone could do this much."

"What's happening?" Shirou asked.

"I never thought it would be her since the Einzbern tried to kill her," Ria noted. "She contains the souls that are killed in this war until there are enough to activate the Grail. In all honesty, we can end this now by killing her and burning her body to ash. It would be a mercy compared to what waits for her."

Lancer grimaced as she regarded the small, at least mildly psychopathic young woman and then looked to Shirou.

"Is there a way to save her?" Shirou asked.

"None that don't mean prolonging the war and probably seeing more people die," Ria commented. "And at this point I doubt she'd live long no matter what we do."

"She did try quite hard to kill us," Lancer noted. "But I rather dislike the idea of such a sacrifice. Not even trying to save her..."

"The thing that will rise out of her will be much harder to be rid of," Ria countered.

"She didn't choose this, did she?" Shirou asked.

"No, this is something that she had no choice in," Ria confirmed quietly.

"No wonder she was so desperate to hear answers," Shirou whispered. "Her time was running out. This is probably what she thought we meant about being the true nature of the Grail. This is what you and my father were talking about when you said I'd have to kill to protect sometimes. Not the ones doing evil..."

"...but victims who are integral to such plans," Ria finished.

Lancer spoke up, "I cannot think that killing the victim is anything other than a temporary measure."

Shirou looks to where Illya lies breathing shallowly and eyes closed. "If there is a chance we can save her, we should take it."

"In which case," Ria warned. "Say nothing of this from here on out. We've already had one...incident from Caster. He would likely be unable to refuse this temptation."

"What did happen here?" Shirou asked.

"I'll explain on the way," the black knight noted as she scooped up the little girl. "Let's go."

It was getting close to night as they arrived at Rin Tohsaka's house.

* * *

The basin between Illyasviel's arms was almost full now. A massive golden soul took up the vast majority of the space within her, taking up as much room as it could and pushing the other souls to the side here and there. Amongst those were two other souls that were great, though not so heavy or massive as that golden soul. One of those two, she knew was her Saber.

Three Servants and she was already close to enough power to manifest the Grail. She could feel it waiting hungrily below for her and the rest of these souls to fall down, feeding it and giving it shape. That was supposed to be the reason she existed, to point the way to the Third Magic, but she felt foul thinking about it now. She started to bend her face downward again, to dip into the pool of herself and look at the various souls within. If she could maybe convince the souls within herself to arrange themselves so that they didn't move so chaotically, maybe she could wake up again, enjoy her time in the world just a little bit longer.

She braced herself for the rush of memories that came as she made contact with the souls. Like the dreams she had about Saber, but only much more direct and intense. Much more...thought provoking. Before she probably wouldn't have thought much about the plight of people that she didn't know, but, having the memories of all the people who'd died for this ritual push over her in the nights since the fight in the Einzbern forest was wearying. She was getting to know these dead people...and it made her current helpless position that much worse.

One more Servant, and her cup would overflow...then the sacrifice of all these lives would bring that horror into existence.

* * *

Shirou had a brief moment's of disorientation as he moved from a tale of Lancer's life, she was living with a different magi now and apparently not in a romantic fashion. These images were less vague, and somehow Shirou felt these were related to the first set, as if Lancer had somehow been inherited like a crest in a fashion. The battles continued, however.

That image was passing though, he was an the path of swords again. This time he was closer to the door than before, but something was drawing him to look back toward the hill and the sheath at the top of it. He stood there in confusion for a moment by the split direction of the dream. He still felt like he needed to head for that door that stood in the open air, but there was a sense of urgency coming from the hill. Frowning, he turned back around and started to climb again.

He wasn't sure how long it was before he found himself standing at the sheath again, only this time there seemed to be a glittering gateway beyond which was a vast green field. Even looking at it felt relaxing and soothing. For a moment, he considered trying to step through the gate onto the other side, but he didn't feel that would be right somehow.

Glancing down, he found another sight to draw his surprise and attention.

"She needs it more than you do," a woman's voice noted firmly.

Shirou looked up but the light behind the woman made it hard to see what she looked like before she somehow stepped out of view.

* * *

Rin had never felt cold in these dreams before, but that didn't bother her as much as other things. Her sense of direction was...confused. It was like she could feel where she wanted to go, but the direction didn't exist anymore. So she was wandering aimlessly among these stacks of books feeling like she'd lost something and didn't know what. A third worry more distinct stood out closer to the front of her mind, however: She wondered whether Sakura was all right.

* * *

The climb up was easier, though the pit still stank of foulness, but the air was turning cleaner as she traveled upward. Slime still clutched at her feet, but she didn't seem as tired as other times she had this dream. The darkness itself held no distaste for her anymore. She still couldn't see, but she could still where most things sat within the darkness that surrounded her, at least within this dream, as if the darkness were a part of her somehow.

As she climbed, her mind started to drift towards the life of Assassin. The last few unenviable years of her life as that dreaded gorgon on the rock at the end of the world. Those memories were starting to blur into a uniform chaos now. Men one after another coming to find her and kill her, even though the primary thing they sought had been left behind long ago. It was in the end that Perseus came with the weapon that Assassin now wielded.

* * *

Rin woke up the next morning but didn't feel any less tired than she had when she'd passed out. She was usually slow to wake up actually, so she didn't really notice much about it as she struggled her way out of bed and mechanically moved toward the wardrobe. She was vaguely aware that she dressed in an over-sized shirt but it didn't really occur to her. Instead, she went about what she normally did in the morning after waking up at home: get ready for the day.

Had she been less tired, she might have noticed the fact that she wasn't waking up as quickly as normal. However, it was certainly clear to the others as the girl walked past them looking pale as she came into the kitchen looking for breakfast. It was almost a full minute before she seemed to notice the other people around her.

Among them, Taiga stepping forward to check her forehead as if looking for a fever. "She's too cold."

"What's everyone doing in my house?" she asked, breathing heavily. "Wait...what am I doing in my house?"

"My grandfather found us, Tohsaka-senpai," Sakura noted in a concerned tone of voice.

"Oh, that's right..." Rin noted, shaking her head as she looked to find everyone else in the room staring at her in a variety of fashions. "Where's the homonculus brat?"

"Illya-chan's resting," Lancer explained. "I think you should be as well. She had Avalon in her?"

"It was a copy," Ria confirmed with a troubled expression which briefly moved from Rin to Lancer at the other's use of the relic's name. "But yesterday she looked quite healthy when before I left to meet with you and Shirou."

"I am simply slow to wake up," the magus's words were slow but determined. "In a few minutes, I'll be fine."

Looking around, everyone had the same expression of concern on their face, except Shirou. Shirou's expression was very pointed. The sense of examination was colored by a sort of hesitation that she was too tired to easily analyze.

Ria stood up and walked over to Rin, taking her arm forcefully before checking the girl's pulse. "Your pulse is definitely weaker than it should be. Caster's version of Avalon was working perfectly last night, you should be perfectly healthy."

"There's nothing wrong with me," Rin declared, trying to pull her hand away. When the black knight released her hand Rin just about collapsed, breathing as if she had just run a marathon. Slowly, she tried to sit up again, panting before Sakura came up to her and gently pushed her back down. "Maybe there's a little something wrong with me."

"If Caster can copy it once, perhaps we should ask him to do so again," Lancer noted. "Until we find out what's wrong."

"We've got a better option," Ria commented, glancing toward Shirou. "Shirou, I have some instructions for you," Ria ordered as she bent down to scoop up Rin. "Follow me. Everyone else stay here."

Lancer crossed her arms and frowned as Ria left to another room with the two teenagers.

"What is she's talking about?" Lancer asked.

"Big Sister mentioned Shirou's father using a relic to save his life," Taiga explained. "Maybe they still have it somewhere?"

Lancer frowned in thought before muttering. "I thought it was Milady that was the catalyst that brought me here."

* * *

Shirou looked across at where Rin was sitting and visibly improving in health as she leaned on her knees. There was color in her cheeks again, though she still looked far too pale.

"Feeling better?" Ria asked.

"Yes," the magus admitted.

"What was that?" Shirou asked.

"Excalibur's sheath, Avalon," Rin answered. "It's supposed to confer immortality on the owner. But what was Shirou doing with it?"

"That man used it as a catalyst ten years ago," Ria explained. "I never learned about it until he used it to save Shirou's life."

"So that's been inside me for the last ten years?" Shirou asked.

"Will there be any problem for Shirou giving it to me," Rin asked hesitantly.

"I don't think so..." Shirou said, before Ria could answer. He grimaced and scratched the back of his head. "Last night, I had a dream that said you needed it more than I do."

"The dream said?" Ria asked.

"Well, it sounded like a woman," Shirou explained. "I couldn't really see her. But I saw Rin sleeping on the edge of a green field."

The black knight frowned, wondering if Avalon had a spirit manifestation or if maybe one of the faerie that made it had appeared to Shirou. In either case, had Avalon apparently told Shirou to give it to someone else. Looking toward Rin, the magus seemed to have hit the same implication and was frowning thoughtfully.

"Regardless," the girl said. "We have other things to worry about. We should..."

"One note, Rin," Ria interrupted. "Avalon only works for Shirou because he's lived with it for ten years. And it only works at its best when I am nearby. For you, to remain fully healthy...you should stay near me. The closer to you I am, the better Avalon will work."

"You're the original owner, aren't you?" Rin asked. "Lady of the Lake?"

Ria grimaced, almost snarled.

"She doesn't have to say, Rin," Shirou insisted. "But how about Lancer? You seem to be related."

The black knight thought to Lancer's weapons and how Avalon seemed to working even better now than it ever had in the past ten years. "Lancer might be a viable option too. But try to stay with one of us until the problem is fixed."

"And if it can't be fixed?" Rin demanded. There was no answer and Rin grimaced.

"What went wrong anyway?" Shirou asked. "If it's not supposed to work that way."

"Could be a number of things," the black knight commented. "The duplication seemed perfect, but perhaps the Command Seal made the process of giving it to her unstable, or forced Caster to rush the issue. Avalon itself is finicky. Perhaps it demanded a price for what you wanted. Rin is better qualified to theorize than I am."

"It doesn't matter," the magus commented. "I'll deal with it later. Right now..." She blinked and frowned. "Right now we have a visitor."

* * *

Outside the grounds of the Tohsaka manor, three people stood patiently outside the gates in a fashion. One man standing tall and proud while flanked by two nearly identical women.


End file.
